1. Theia: an advanced optical neutrino detector
- Author
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Askins, M, Bagdasarian, Z, Barros, N, Beier, EW, Blucher, E, Bonventre, R, Bourret, E, Callaghan, EJ, Caravaca, J, Diwan, M, Dye, ST, Eisch, J, Elagin, A, Enqvist, T, Fischer, V, Frankiewicz, K, Grant, C, Guffanti, D, Hagner, C, Hallin, A, Jackson, CM, Jiang, R, Kaptanoglu, T, Klein, JR, Kolomensky, YG, Kraus, C, Krennrich, F, Kutter, T, Lachenmaier, T, Land, B, Lande, K, Learned, JG, Lozza, V, Ludhova, L, Malek, M, Manecki, S, Maneira, J, Maricic, J, Martyn, J, Mastbaum, A, Mauger, C, Moretti, F, Napolitano, J, Naranjo, B, Nieslony, M, Oberauer, L, Orebi Gann, GD, Ouellet, J, Pershing, T, Petcov, ST, Pickard, L, Rosero, R, Sanchez, MC, Sawatzki, J, Seo, SH, Smiley, M, Smy, M, Stahl, A, Steiger, H, Stock, MR, Sunej, H, Svoboda, R, Tiras, E, Trzaska, WH, Tzanov, M, Vagins, M, Vilela, C, Wang, Z, Wang, J, Wetstein, M, Wilking, MJ, Winslow, L, Wittich, P, Wonsak, B, Worcester, E, Wurm, M, Yang, G, Yeh, M, Zimmerman, ED, Zsoldos, S, and Zuber, K
- Subjects
physics.ins-det ,hep-ex ,nucl-ex ,Nuclear & Particles Physics ,Atomic ,Molecular ,Nuclear ,Particle and Plasma Physics ,Quantum Physics ,Atomic ,Molecular ,Nuclear ,Particle and Plasma Physics - 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 δ, 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.
- Published
- 2020