2015/08/31 by S. Andringa, SNO+ Collaboration, E. Arushanova +180 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ex #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · doi:10.1155/2016/6194250
published as Advances in High Energy Physics, vol. 2016, 6194250 · Published in "Neutrino Masses and Oscillations" of Advances in High Energy Physics (Hindawi)
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · arxiv created 2016/01/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv updated 2016/08/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
SNO+ is a large liquid scintillator-based experiment located 2km underground at SNOLAB, Sudbury, Canada. It reuses the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory detector, consisting of a 12m diameter acrylic vessel which will be filled with about 780 tonnes of ultra-pure liquid scintillator. Designed as a multipurpose neutrino experiment, the primary goal of SNO+ is a search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) of 130Te. In Phase I, the detector will be loaded with 0.3% natural tellurium, corresponding to nearly 800 kg of 130Te, with an expected effective Majorana neutrino mass sensitivity in the region of 55-133 meV, just above the inverted mass hierarchy. Recently, the possibility of deploying up to ten times more natural tellurium has been investigated, which would enable SNO+ to achieve sensitivity deep into the parameter space for the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy in the future. Additionally, SNO+ aims to measure reactor antineutrino oscillations, low-energy solar neutrinos, and geoneutrinos, to be sensitive to supernova neutrinos, and to search for exotic physics. A first phase with the detector filled with water will begin soon, with the scintillator phase expected to start after a few months of water data taking. The 0νββ Phase I is foreseen for 2017.