H2020Индивидуална стипендия2016–2018

LORD · First R'n'D and Physics Results with a Novel Opaque Neutrino Detector

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2016-09-01 → 2018-09-30
Финансиране от ЕС: 185 076 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF-EF-ST

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Накратко на български

Нова техника за засичане на неутрино чрез подобряване на изображението в течните сцинтилатори помага за разграничаване на отделните взаимодействия. По-прецизното разпознаване на тези частици е важно за по-доброто разбиране на природата на вселената.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

First R'n'D and Physics Results with a Novel Opaque Neutrino Detector

This project dealt with developing a new technique to detect elusive particles, such as neutrinos, and rare decays in the context of particle physics. Neutrinos interact with ordinary matter extremely weakly, hence massive detectors are used to observe their passage. One class of such detectors relies on large volumes filled with a so-called organic liquid scintillator (LS), a material that emits visible light when some energy gets deposited into it. The main limitation of a LS detector is that the scintillation light is detected far away from the place where the primary interaction takes place, hence the image that one gets of the interaction is somehow blurred. That is, it is extremely difficult to disentangle if there was just one, or multiple interactions happening at the same time. Analogously, it is difficult to identify the type of particle interacting in the detector. This issue is currently limiting our capability to tag and reject background events, hence to fully exploit the LS technology for the next generation of detectors involved in the search for rare processes. The goal of this project was to introduce a new approach to collect the scintillation light meant to improve the spatial resolution with which the particle interaction could be imaged. That is, to improve the signal-to-background discrimination in a LS detector. The importance of this goal lies in basic science. Neutrinos have proved to be a rich source of information about the understating of our universe during the last 70 years, but many unknowns concerning their nature are yet to be solved. Advancing the detection technology is therefore the only viable way to improve our comprehension of this elusive particle.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

LANDs (Liquid scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detectors) have been for decades in the forefront of reactor neutrino fundamental research, yielding groundbreaking results. Despite success, LANDs are known to have a rather poor event-wise background rejection capability. LiquidO is a novel neutrino detection technology which, while inheriting much from LANDs, relies, in total opposition, on the unique exploitation of an opaque liquid scintillator to yield a breakthrough performance in terms of background rejection. Our project deals with first LiquidO R&D (LORD) steps to demonstrate LiquidO's unprecedented ability in terms of physics detection performance with reactor antineutrinos, where a positron is to be uniquely identified as the signal (via Inverse Beta Decay reaction), thus rejecting most (or all) the backgrounds known so far. The goal is to exploit LiquidO's effective light confinement to reach a unprecedented spatial resolution (order 1cm), as compared to LANDs (typically >10cm). The researcher will thus develop and tune a high accuracy simulation using data-driven results obtained from two dedicated table-top prototypes. Then, he will demonstrate that LiquidO can be both (a) an effective background-less and (b) IBD directionally sensitive detector, among the most challenging (so far impossible) detector capabilities for any reactor neutrino detector today. The researcher will design and optimise a hypothetical LiquidO detector (via the tuned simulation) studying those capabilities, both relying on the same exploitation of the now resolvable non-point-like positron energy deposition caused by the annihilation gammas, thus discriminating from any other background final state (electron/gamma/proton-recoil). Such experimental capabilities so far impossible will provide a breakthrough training scenario for the researcher to culminate his preparation as a mature researcher in fundamental physics beyond today's state of the art detector technology.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

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