Related papers: Geo-neutrinos and Earth's interior
Radiogenic heating is a key component of the energy balance and thermal evolution of the Earth. It contributes to mantle convection, plate tectonics, volcanoes, and mountain building. Geo-neutrino observations estimate the present…
Over the last two decades, we have intensified our search for a ghost particle, with the hope that it would provide us with information on the darkest places of our Universe. This quest has been conducted from the deep caves of the Earth,…
Cosmic-ray interactions with the nuclei of the Earth's atmosphere produce a flux of neutrinos in all directions with energies extending above the TeV scale. However, the Earth is not a fully transparent medium for neutrinos with energies…
In preparation to the experimental results which will be available in the future, we study geo-neutrino production for different models of mantle convection and composition. By using global mass balance for the Bulk Silicate Earth, the…
Knowledge about the interior of our planet is mainly based on the interpretation of seismic data from earthquakes and nuclear explosions, and of composition of meteorites. Additional observations have led to a wide range of hypotheses on…
Geo-neutrinos emitted by heat-producing elements (U, Th and K) represent a unique probe of the Earth interior. The characterization of their fluxes is subject, however, to rather large and highly correlated uncertainties. The geochemical…
Because the propagation of neutrinos is affected by the presence of Earth matter, it opens new possibilities to probe the Earth's interior. Different approaches range from techniques based upon the interaction of high energy (above TeV)…
Uranium and thorium are the main heat producing elements in the earth. Their quantities and distributions, which specify the flux of detectable antineutrinos generated by the beta decay of their daughter isotopes, remain unmeasured.…
The terrestrial distribution of U, Th, and K abundances governs the thermal evolution, traces the differentiation, and reflects the bulk composition of the earth. Comparing the bulk earth composition to chondritic meteorites estimates the…
Antineutrinos born in the U and Th decay chains inside the Earth (``Geoneutrinos'') carry out information on the amount and distribution of radiogenic heat sources, which is of fundamental importance for geophysics. Models of the Earth…
Geo-neutrinos, electron anti-neutrinos produced in beta decays of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes in the Earth, are a unique direct probe of our planet's interior. We report the first observation at more than 3$\sigma$ C.L. of…
In the past four decades a new type of astronomy has emerged, where instead of looking up into the sky "telescopes" are buried miles underground or deep under water or ice and search not for photons (that is, light), but rather for…
Earth neutrino tomography is a realistic possibility with current and future neutrino detectors, complementary to geophysics methods. The two main approaches are based on either partial absorption of the neutrino flux as it propagates…
We estimate terrestrial antineutrino and neutrino fluxes according to different models of Earth composition. We find large variations, corresponding to uncertainties on the estimated $U$, $Th$ and $K$ abundances in the mantle. Information…
Of all high-energy particles, only neutrinos can directly convey astronomical information from the edge of the universe---and from deep inside the most cataclysmic high-energy processes. Copiously produced in high-energy collisions,…
The flux of geoneutrinos at any point on the Earth is a function of the abundance and distribution of radioactive elements within our planet. This flux has been successfully detected by the 1-kt KamLAND and 0.3-kt Borexino detectors with…
It has been estimated that the entire Earth generates heat corresponding to about 40 TW (equivalent to 10,000 nuclear power plants) which is considered to originate mainly from the radioactive decay of elements like U, Th and K, deposited…
The neutrino is the most elusive particle that we know and for many years physicists doubted that neutrinos might never be revealed. Today we know and we reveal neutrinos produced by different astrophysical objects and by interactions of…
The Earth is commonly used as a natural filter for the operation of deep-underground and deep-sea neutrino telescopes. By selecting events pointing in upward directions, the background of muons produced by interactions of cosmic rays in the…
This paper briefly reviews recent developments in the field of geo-neutrinos. It describes current and future detection projects, discusses modeling projects, suggests an observational program, and visits geo-reactor hypotheses.