Novel techniques to detect supernova neutrinos with scintillator and lead detectors

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Kai Zuber
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 250312026

Neutrino properties influence a wide range of physics. One of the outstanding scientific achievements of the last decade is the proof of a non-vanishing neutrino rest mass based on the effect of neutrino oscillations. Core collapse supernova explosions are a particular source of neutrinos whose first observation took place in 1987. Meanwhile far more modern detectors are existing and further are being planned. An important reaction is the neutrino-proton elastic scattering, a neutral current (NC) reaction possible for all flavours. The usage of this reaction for a supernova observation is fortunate for scintillators. Therefore, however, the light yield of the recoiled protons relative to the respective electron light yield (the so-called quenching factor) needs to be measured. The value of the quenching factor is energy dependent and varies from scintillator to scintillator. Thus the quenching needs to be measured for the individual experiment. Due to the rareness of a galactic core collapse supernova also complementarity and synergy between different experiments need to be considered to get the most out of a next near supernova event. The experiments SNO+ and HALO are in this context of special interest, as they make use of completely different detector technologies but are standing in the same laboratory.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants