Speaker
Oleg Smirnov
(Joint Institute for Nuclear Research)
Description
Geo-neutrinos, the antineutrinos from beta- decaying elements in
238U, 232Th chains and 40K decays in the Earth, are the only reliable
sources of information on the distribution and concentration of these
elements in the entire planet. Their detection can shed the light on the
sources of the terrestrial heat flow, on the present composition,
and on the origins of the Earth.
Although geo-neutrinos were conceived long ago, a first detection of the
geoneutrinos occured very recently due to the development of large
volume ultrapure liquid scintillator detectors. This year the Borexino
and KamLAND had reported 99.997% C.L. for the presence of non-zero
geoneutrino signal in their detected spectra, opening a new era in
geophysics.
Geoneutrinos, if registered with appropriate precision, potentially can
help to answer the questions regarding our planet: what is the
radiogenic contribution to terrestrial heat production; what is the
content of U and Th in the crust and in the mantle respectively; is
there any hidden source of heat in the Earth’s core, such as a
geo-reactor or 40K; and, finally, is the standard geochemical model (the
so called Bulk Silicate Earth model) consistent with geo-neutrino data?
Primary author
Oleg Smirnov
(Joint Institute for Nuclear Research)
