Search for Astrophysical Electron Antineutrinos in Super-Kamiokande with 0.01% Gadolinium-loaded Water



Harada, M, Abe, K, Bronner, C, Hayato, Y, Hiraide, K, Hosokawa, K, Ieki, K, Ikeda, M, Kameda, J, Kanemura, Y
et al (show 231 more authors) (2023) Search for Astrophysical Electron Antineutrinos in Super-Kamiokande with 0.01% Gadolinium-loaded Water. ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS, 951 (2). L27-L27.

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Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We report the first search result for the flux of astrophysical electron antineutrinos for energies <jats:inline-formula> <jats:tex-math> <?CDATA ${ \mathcal O }(10)\,\mathrm{MeV}$?> </jats:tex-math> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi mathvariant="italic"></mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mspace width="0.50em" /> <mml:mi>MeV</mml:mi> </mml:math> <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="apjlacdc9eieqn1.gif" xlink:type="simple" /> </jats:inline-formula> in the gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector. In 2020 June, gadolinium was introduced to the ultrapure water of the SK detector in order to detect neutrons more efficiently. In this new experimental phase, SK-Gd, we can search for electron antineutrinos via inverse beta decay with efficient background rejection thanks to the high efficiency of the neutron tagging technique. In this paper, we report the result for the initial stage of SK-Gd, during 2020 August 26, and 2022 June 1 with a 22.5 × 552 kton · day exposure at 0.01% Gd mass concentration. No significant excess over the expected background in the observed events is found for the neutrino energies below 31.3 MeV. Thus, the flux upper limits are placed at the 90% confidence level. The limits and sensitivities are already comparable with the previous SK result with pure water (22.5 × 2970 kton · day) owing to the enhanced neutron tagging. Operation with Gd increased to 0.03% started in 2022 June.</jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Physical Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 03 Oct 2023 16:20
Last Modified: 03 Oct 2023 16:34
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/acdc9e
Open Access URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-82...
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3173392