A1 Journal article (refereed)
THEIA : an advanced optical neutrino detector (2020)

Askins, M., Bagdasarian, Z., Barros, N., Beier, E. W., Blucher, E., Bonventre, R., Bourret, E., Callaghan, E. J., Caravaca, J., Diwan, M., Dye, S. T., Eisch, J., Elagin, A., Enqvist, T., Fischer, V., Frankiewicz, K., Grant, C., Guffanti, D., Hagner, C., . . . Zuber, K. (2020). THEIA : an advanced optical neutrino detector. European Physical Journal C, 80(5), Article 416. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7977-8

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Askins, M.; Bagdasarian, Z.; Barros, N.; Beier, E. W.; Blucher, E.; Bonventre, R.; Bourret, E.; Callaghan, E. J.; Caravaca, J.; Diwan, M.; et al.

Journal or series: European Physical Journal C

ISSN: 1434-6044

eISSN: 1434-6052

Publication year: 2020

Volume: 80

Issue number: 5

Article number: 416

Publisher: Springer

Publication country: Germany

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7977-8

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/69064

Web address of parallel published publication (pre-print): https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.03501

Abstract

New developments in liquid scintillators, high-efficiency, fast photon detectors, and chromatic photon sorting have opened up the possibility for building a large-scale detector that can discriminate between Cherenkov and scintillation signals. Such a detector could reconstruct particle direction and species using Cherenkov light while also having the excellent energy resolution and low threshold of a scintillator detector. Situated deep underground, and utilizing new techniques in computing and reconstruction, this detector could achieve unprecedented levels of background rejection, enabling a rich physics program spanning topics in nuclear, high-energy, and astrophysics, and across a dynamic range from hundreds of keV to many GeV. The scientific program would include observations of low- and high-energy solar neutrinos, determination of neutrino mass ordering and measurement of the neutrino CP-violating phase \(\delta \), observations of diffuse supernova neutrinos and neutrinos from a supernova burst, sensitive searches for nucleon decay and, ultimately, a search for neutrinoless double beta decay, with sensitivity reaching the normal ordering regime of neutrino mass phase space. This paper describes THEIA, a detector design that incorporates these new technologies in a practical and affordable way to accomplish the science goals described above.

Keywords: particle physics; neutrinos; research equipment; detectors

Free keywords: experimental physics

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020

JUFO rating: 2