Concept for a Space-based Near-Solar Neutrino Detector
Abstract
The concept of putting a neutrino detector in close orbit of the sun has been unexplored until very recently. The primary scientific return is to vastly enhance our understanding of the solar interior, which is a major NASA goal. Preliminary calculations show that such a spacecraft, if properly shielded, can operate in space environments while taking data from neutrino interactions. These interactions can be distinguished from random background rates of solar electromagnetic emissions, galactic charged cosmic-rays, and gamma-rays by using a double pulsed signature. Early simulations of this project have shown this veto schema to be successful in eliminating background and identifying the neutrino interaction signal in upwards of 75% of gamma ray interactions and nearly 100% of other interactions. Hence, we propose a new instrument to explore and study our sun. Due to inverse square scaling, this instrument has the potential to outperform earth-based experiments in several domains such as making measurements not accessible from the earth's orbit.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2206.00703,
title = {Concept for a Space-based Near-Solar Neutrino Detector},
author = {N. Solomey and J. Folkerts and H. Meyer and C. Gimar and J. Novak and B. Doty and T. English and L. Buchele and A. Nelsen and R. McTaggart and M. Christl},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.00703},
year = {2023}
}