English

Geoneutrinos at Jinping: Flux prediction and oscillation analysis

High Energy Physics - Experiment 2017-03-08 v3 Geophysics Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

Geoneutrinos are electron antineutrinos (νˉe\bar\nu_e) generated by the beta-decays of radionuclides naturally occurring inside the Earth, in particular 238^{238}U, 232^{232}Th, and 40^{40}K. Measurement of these neutrinos provides powerful constraints on the radiogenic heat of the Earth and tests on the Earth models. Since the prediction of νˉe\bar\nu_e's in geoneutrino flux is subject to neutrino oscillation effects, we performed a calculation including detailed oscillation analysis in the propagation of geoneutrinos and reactor neutrinos generated around the Earth. The expected geoneutrino signal, the reactor neutrino background rates and the systematic error budget are provided for a proposed 3-kiloton neutrino detector at the Jinping underground lab in Sichuan, China. In addition, we evaluated sensitivities for the geoneutrino flux, Th/U ratio and power of a possible fission reactor in the interior of Earth.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.00133,
  title  = {Geoneutrinos at Jinping: Flux prediction and oscillation analysis},
  author = {Linyan Wan and Ghulam Hussain and Zhe Wang and Shaomin Chen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.00133},
  year   = {2017}
}