Speaker
Description
SNO+ is a phased experiment to ultimately search for neutrinoless double beta decay in a Tellurium-loaded liquid scintillator detector. From 2017 to 2019, SNO+ operated as a pure water Cherenkov detector with a very low energy threshold. The 2.2 MeV gammas, characteristic of neutron captures, were detected with an efficiency around 50%, allowing the identification of inverse beta decays induced by reactor antineutrinos in more than 1 kton of pure water. Two independent analyses were developed to suppress the dominant random coincidence background by four orders of magnitude. This background is estimated from data, along with those from $(\alpha,n)$ reactions and atmospheric neutrinos. Both analyses identify a small but significant number of electron antineutrino candidates, compatible with the fluxes expected from the surrounding nuclear reactors, all located at least 240 km away from Sudbury, Canada.
| Collaboration | SNO+ |
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