1. Theia: An advanced optical neutrino detector
- Author
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Askins, M., Bagdasarian, Z., Barros, N., Beier, E. W., Blucher, E., Bonventre, R., Callaghan, E., Caravaca, J., Diwan, M., Dye, S. T., Eisch, J., Elagin, A., Enqvist, T., Fischer, V., Frankiewicz, K., Grant, C., Guffanti, D., Hagner, C., Hallin, A., Jackson, C. M., Jiang, R., Kaptanoglu, T., Klein, J. R., Kolomensky, Yu. G., Kraus, C., Krennrich, F., Kutter, T., Lachenmaier, T., Land, B., Lande, K., Learned, J. G., Lozza, V., Ludhova, L., Malek, M., Manecki, S., Maneira, J., Maricic, J., Martyn, J., Mastbaum, A., Mauger, C., Napolitano, J., Naranjo, B., Nieslony, M., Oberauer, L., Gann, G. D. Orebi, Ouellet, J., Pershing, T., Petcov, S. T., Picard, L., Rosero, R., Sanchez, M., Sawatzki, J., Seo, S. H., Smiley, M., Smy, M., Stahl, A., Steiger, H., Stock, M. R., Sunej, H., Svoboda, R., Tiras, E., Trzaska, W., Tzanov, M., Vagins, M., Vilela, C., Wang, Z., Wang, J., Wetstein, M., Wilking, M. J., Winslow, L., Wittich, P., Wonsak, B., Worcester, E., Wurm, M., Yang, G., Yeh, M., Zimmerman, E. D., and Zuber, K.
- Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors ,High Energy Physics - Experiment ,Nuclear Experiment - 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 exploit these two distinct signals to observe particle direction and species using Cherenkov light while also having the excellent energy resolution and low threshold of a scintillator detector. Situated in a deep underground laboratory, and utilizing new techniques in computing and reconstruction techniques, such a detector could achieve unprecedented levels of background rejection, thus enabling a rich physics program that would span 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, 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 (NLDBD) 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. We consider two scenarios, one in which Theia would reside in a cavern the size and shape of the caverns intended to be excavated for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) which we call Theia 25, and a larger 100 ktonne version (Theia 100) that could achieve an even broader and more sensitive scientific program.
- Published
- 2019
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