Geoneutrinos and reactor antineutrinos at SNO+. Issue 6 (May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baldoncini, M; Strati, V; Wipperfurth, S A; Fiorentini, G; Mantovani, F; McDonough, W F; Ricci, B
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 718:Issue 6(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016-05
• Subjects: Physics -- Congresses; 530.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/718/6/062003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-6588

Abstract

Abstract: In the heart of the Creighton Mine near Sudbury (Canada), the SNO+ detector is foreseen to observe almost in equal proportion electron antineutrinos produced by U and Th in the Earth and by nuclear reactors. SNO+ will be the first long baseline experiment to measure a reactor signal dominated by CANDU cores (~55% of the total reactor signal), which generally burn natural uranium. Approximately 18% of the total geoneutrino signal is generated by the U and Th present in the rocks of the Huronian Supergroup-Sudbury Basin: the 60% uncertainty on the signal produced by this lithologic unit plays a crucial role on the discrimination power on the mantle signal as well as on the geoneutrino spectral shape reconstruction, which can in principle provide a direct measurement of the Th/U ratio in the Earth.