JUNO sensitivity to low energy atmospheric neutrino spectra

Abstract

Atmospheric neutrinos are one of the most relevant natural neutrino sources that can be exploited to infer properties about cosmic rays and neutrino oscillations. The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment, a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector with excellent energy resolution is currently under construction in China. JUNO will be able to detect several atmospheric neutrinos per day given the large volume. A study on the JUNO detection and reconstruction capabilities of atmospheric $$\nu _e$$ ν e and $$\nu _\mu $$ ν μ fluxes is presented in this paper. In this study, a sample of atmospheric neutrino Monte Carlo events has been generated, starting from theoretical models, and then processed by the detector simulation. The excellent timing resolution of the 3” PMT light detection system of JUNO detector and the much higher light yield for scintillation over Cherenkov allow to measure the time structure of the scintillation light with very high precision. Since $$\nu _e$$ ν e and $$\nu _\mu $$ ν μ interactions produce a slightly different light pattern, the different time evolution of light allows to discriminate the flavor of primary neutrinos. A probabilistic unfolding method has been used, in order to infer the primary neutrino energy spectrum from the detector experimental observables. The simulated spectrum has been reconstructed between 100 MeV and 10 GeV, showing a great potential of the detector in the atmospheric low energy region.

Prospects for Detecting the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

“…The JUNO experiment is located at Jiangmen in Guangdong province, China at equal distance from the Taishan and Yangjiang nuclear power plants, with the primary goals of determining the neutrino mass ordering [16][17][18] and the precision measurement of oscillation parameters [19] with reactor antineutrinos, together with other physics program, including studies of neutrinos from the Sun [20], the planet Earth [21], the atmosphere [22], and the core collapse SNe [23] as well as the exploration of physics beyond the Standard Model [16].…”

JUNO potential in non-oscillation physics

“…This section firstly focuses on JUNO's capabilities to detect solar neutrinos in the energy range spanning from 0.3 MeV to 2.1 MeV using elastic scattering off electrons. This range includes prominent signatures of solar neutrinos, including the Compton-like edge of recoiled electrons from the mono-energetic so-called 7 Be neutrinos and pp-neutrinos in the lower energy regions. The main…”

“…JUNO potential in non-oscillation physics Alexandre Göttel advantages of JUNO, compared to previous LS neutrino experiments that have performed precise solar neutrino measurements [2, 3], are its extremely large fiducial mass and its unprecedented energy resolution. Based on these facts, JUNO has the potential to provide world-leading precision on the rates of 7 Be and -neutrinos in less than a year, but these results are strongly dependent on internal radioactivity.…”

“…The most important background is that of the 238 U and 232 Th chains, detectable via fast 214(212) Bi- 214(212) Po coincidences, whose levels should be kept below 1 × 10 −16 g g −1 [1] to allow for meaningful measurements. Achieving a more precise measurement of 7 Be and pp neutrinos than the current existing ones would go towards solving the long-standing metallicity problem, study the MSW transition region, and study non-standard interactions [1]. The detection of other kinds of solar neutrinos also strongly depends on the possibility of tagging 11 C cosmosgenic background, with the exception of 8 B and hep neutrinos which are addressed in the next section.…”

“…JUNO's large target mass and unprecedented energy resolution can offer a lot of information about atmospheric neutrinos, including some directional information despite the isotropic nature of scintillation light emission. More specifically, it was shown that JUNO can use time information [7] in order to discriminate between and neutrinos. This mainly comes from the fact that -induced tracks have a broader time profile than the purely leptonic events.…”