XXXI International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics

Tagging Correlated Events in a Small-Scale Liquid Scintillator Detector

18 Jun 2024, 17:30

2h

Near Aula Magna (U6 building) (University of Milano-Bicocca)

Poster Reactor neutrinos Poster session and reception 1

Speakers

Arsenii Gavrikov (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) Vanessa Cerrone (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Description

This contribution focuses on a small-scale liquid scintillator detector, serving as a test setup for the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment. JUNO is a next-generation medium baseline neutrino experiment located in China. The experiment has a broad physics program and the main goals are to determine the neutrino mass ordering and measure three oscillation parameters with sub-percent precision. JUNO's central detector is an acrylic sphere $\sim$35.4 meters in diameter filled with 20 kt of liquid scintillator. It is equipped with 43212 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) providing $\sim$75% of photo-coverage. As the detector approaches its final commissioning phase, comprehensive testing of various components of the experiment is crucial.
The presented test setup, located at Legnaro National Laboratory in Italy, consists of $\sim$20 kg of JUNO liquid scintillator watched by 48 2-inch PMTs. This setup is equipped with JUNO's readout electronics and data acquisition (DAQ) and it was mainly designed as a test-bench for the full processing chain.
In this contribution, we present preliminary results on the feasibility of tagging time-correlated events, exploiting the ${}^{214}$Bi-${}^{214}$Po $\beta$-$\alpha$ coincidence.
To ensure accurate energy measurements, we performed an energy calibration using several radioactive sources. The calibration procedure establishes a precise energy scale, essential for subsequent analyses.
${}^{214}$Bi-${}^{214}$Po coincidences, characterized by a time difference of approximately 230 $\mu$s, close to the timing of JUNO's main signal, inverse beta decay events, provide an opportunity to test part of the selection strategy. The results show approximately 10 thousand ${}^{214}$Bi-${}^{214}$Po candidates acquired after $\sim$15 hours of data acquisition.

Presentation materials

Gavrikov_Cerrone_Neutrino24_Tagging_Correlated_Events.pdf