Prospects for detecting the diffuse supernova neutrino background with JUNO

Abstract

We present the detection potential for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), using the inverse-beta-decay (IBD) detection channel on free protons. We employ the latest information on the DSNB flux predictions, and investigate in detail the background and its reduction for the DSNB search at JUNO. The atmospheric neutrino induced neutral current (NC) background turns out to be the most critical background, whose uncertainty is carefully evaluated from both the spread of model predictions and an envisaged in situ measurement. We also make a careful study on the background suppression with the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) and triple coincidence (TC) cuts. With latest DSNB signal predictions, more realistic background evaluation and PSD efficiency optimization, and additional TC cut, JUNO can reach the significance of 3σ for 3 years of data taking, and achieve better than 5σ after 10 years for a reference DSNB model. In the pessimistic scenario of non-observation, JUNO would strongly improve the limits and exclude a significant region of the model parameter space.

JUNO's physics prospects

“…The results in the Ref. [1] significantly improve when the latest DSNB signal predictions, more realistic background evaluation, the pulse shape discrimination efficiency optimization, and additional triple coincidence cuts are used [7]. As shown in Fig.…”

“…Thanks to its unprecedented energy resolution and lower energy threshold, JUNO can simultaneously measure 7 Be, pep, and CNO solar neutrinos. It should be noted that the relative uncertainty of the measurement is highly dependent on the final radioactivity level.…”

“…The detector assembly and installation are in progress and are scheduled to be completed by 2023. The JUNO experiment is located at Jiangmen in Guangdong province, China, with the primary goals of determining the neutrino mass ordering (NMO) [1,2] and the precision measurement of oscillation parameters [3] with reactor antineutrinos, together with other physics program, including studies of neutrinos from the Sun [4], the planet Earth [2], the atmosphere [5], and the supernova [6,7] as well as the exploration of physics beyond the Standard Model [1]. This paper provides an updated evaluation on the prospects of JUNO's physics goal [1].…”

Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO): on the way to physics data

“…JUNO can reach a discovery potential significance of 3 for 3 years of data taking, and achieve better than 5 after 10 years, for a reference DSNB model. Details are discussed in [12].…”

JUNO sensitivity to low energy atmospheric neutrino spectra

“…the determination of the neutrino mass ordering via the interplay between the fast and slow oscillation pattern of the reactor antineutrinos spectrum 1 [28,29] also exploiting a reference spectrum provided by TAO [30]. To achieve this, JUNO requires a large target mass and an excellent energy resolution, which offers further opportunities for a variety of topics in the areas of neutrino and astroparticle physics [29,[31][32][33][34][35].…”