Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Solar neutrinos”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3

The conjecture concerning time variations in the solar neutrino flux

The results of the Fourier transformation of the unequally-spaced time series of the recorded Ar-37 production rate of the solar neutrino experiment (runs 18 to 80, 1970 to 1983) are reviewed. Significance criteria for every period discovered by the harmonic analysis are determined. A Fourier synthesis of certain discovered harmonics are performed. It seems that the solar neutrino flux increases shock-like with a period of approximately 8.3 years and after that breaks down. Possible connections between the periods found by the harmonic analysis and several observed phenomena on the solar surface are indicated.

Haubold, H. J.↗

Observation of Low-Lying Isomeric States in 136 Cs: A New Avenue for Dark Matter and Solar Neutrino Detection in Xenon Detectors

We report on new measurements establishing the existence of low-lying isomeric states in 136 Cs using γ rays produced in 136 Xe(p,n) 136 Cs reactions. Here, two states with O(100) ns lifetimes are placed in the decay sequence of the 136 Cs levels that are populated in charged-current interactions of solar neutrinos and fermionic dark matter with 136 Xe. Xenon-based experiments can therefore exploit a delayed-coincidence tag of these interactions, greatly suppressing backgrounds to enable spectroscopic studies of solar neutrinos and dark matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Measurement of the B 8 solar neutrino flux using the full SNO + water phase dataset

The SNO+ detector operated initially as a water Cherenkov detector. The implementation of a sealed cover gas system midway through water data taking resulted in a significant reduction in the activity of 222 Rn daughters in the detector and allowed the lowest background to the solar electron scattering signal above 5 MeV achieved to date. This paper reports an updated SNO+ water phase 8 B solar neutrino analysis with a total livetime of 282.4 days and an analysis threshold of 3.5 MeV. The 8 B solar neutrino flux is found to be (2.3⁢2$^{+0.18}_{-0.17}⁢$(stat)$^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$⁢(syst))×10 6 cm -2 s -1 assuming no neutrino oscillations, or (5.3⁢6$^{+0.41}_{-0.39}⁢$(stat)+$^{0.17}_{-0.16}$⁢(syst))×10 6 cm -2 s -1 assuming standard neutrino oscillation parameters, in good agreement with both previous measurements and standard solar model calculations. The electron recoil spectrum is presented above 3.5 MeV.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Effects of heavy-element settling on solar neutrino fluxes and interior structure

We consider the effects of gravitational settling of both He and heavier elements on the predicted solar neutrino fluxes and interior sound speed and density profiles. We find that while the structural changes that result from the inclusion of both He and heavy-element settling are only slightly larger than the changes resulting from the inclusion of He settling alone, the additional increases in expected neutrino fluxes are of comparable size. Our preferred model with both He and heavy-element settling has neutrino count rates of 9.0 SNU for Cl-37 detectors and 137 SNU for Ga-71 detectors, as compared to 7.1 and 127 SNU for a comparable model without any diffusive separation, or 8.0 and 132 SNU for a model that includes He settling alone. We suggest that the correction factors by which the predicted neutrino fluxes of solar models calculated without including the effects of diffusion should be multiplied are 1.25 +/- 0.08 for Cl detectors, 1.07 +/- 0.02 for Ga detectors, and 1.28 +/- 0.09 for the B-8 flux (1 sigma errors). Comparison of internal sound speed and density profiles strongly suggests that the additional changes in calculated p-mode oscillation frequencies due to the inclusion of heavy-element settling will be small compared to the changes that result from He settling alone, especially for the higher degree modes. All models with diffusive separation give much better agreement with the observed depth of the convection zone than do nondiffusive models. The model that includes both He and heavy-element settling requires an initial He mass fraction Y = 0.280 and has a surface He abundance of Y = 0.251 at the solar age.

Proffitt, Charles R.↗

Event-by-event direction reconstruction of solar neutrinos in a high light-yield liquid scintillator

The direction of individual B 8 solar neutrinos has been reconstructed using the SNO + liquid scintillator detector. Prompt, directional Cherenkov light was separated from the slower, isotropic scintillation light using time information, and a maximum likelihood method was used to reconstruct the direction of individual scattered electrons. A clear directional signal was observed, correlated with the solar angle. The observation was aided by a period of low primary fluor concentration that resulted in a slower scintillator decay time. This is the first time that event-by-event direction reconstruction in high light-yield liquid scintillator has been demonstrated in a large-scale detector. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Implications of new GALLEX results for the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein solution of the solar neutrino problem

We compare the implications for Be-7 and pp neutrinos of the two Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein fits to the new GALLEX solar neutrino measurements. Small-mixing-angle solutions tend to suppress the former as electron neutrinos, but not the latter, and large-angle solutions tend to reduce both by about a factor of two. The consequences for BOREXINO and similar solar neutrino-electron scattering experiments are discussed.

Gelb, James M.↗

Inference finds consistency between a neutrino flavor evolution model and Earth-based solar neutrino measurements

We continue examining statistical data assimilation (SDA), an inference methodology, to infer solutions to neutrino flavor evolution, for the first time using real - rather than simulated - data. The model represents neutrinos streaming from the Sun's center and undergoing a Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) resonance in flavor space, due to the radially-varying electron number density. The model neutrino energies are chosen to correspond to experimental bins in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and Borexino experiments, which measure electron-flavor survival probability at Earth. In conclusion, the procedure successfully finds consistency between the observed fluxes and the model, if the MSW resonance - that is, flavor evolution due to solar electrons - is included in the dynamical equations representing the model.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Solar neutrino detection in liquid xenon detectors via charged-current scattering to excited states

We investigate the prospects for real-time detection of solar neutrinos via the charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering process in liquid xenon time projection chambers. We use a nuclear shell model, benchmarked with experimental data, to calculate the cross sections for populating specific excited states of the cesium nuclei produced by neutrino capture on Xe 131 and Xe 136 . The shell model is further used to compute the decay schemes of the low-lying 1 + excited states of Cs 136 , for which there is sparse experimental data. We explore the possibility of tagging the characteristic deexcitation γ rays/conversion electrons using two techniques: spatial separation of their energy deposits using event topology and their time separation using delayed coincidence. The efficiencies in each case are evaluated within a range of realistic detector parameters. We find that the topological signatures are likely to be dominated by radon backgrounds, but that a delayed-coincidence signature from long-lived states predicted in Cs 136 may enable background-free detection of CNO neutrino interactions in next-generation experiments with smaller uncertainty than current measurements. We also estimate the sensitivity as a function of exposure for detecting the solar-temperature-induced line shift in Be 7 neutrino emission, which may provide a new test of solar models.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Solar Neutrinos and the Primordial Sun

Here, Professor Wick Haxton from the University of California Berkeley discusses neutrino experiments past and present and explains how solar neutrinos may also come to answer the question of whether exo-planet formation leaves chemical imprints on host stars.

Haxton, Wick↗

A possible mechanism to cause the quasi-biennial variability on the solar neutrino flux

It is suggested that the quasi-biennial change in the observed flux of the solar neutrinos is causally related to some non-linear process at the central core of the Sun, being associated with the charge in the central temperature. This process seems to be responsible for the physical adjustment of the internal structure of the Sun. Numerical simulation on this process is able to reproduce the quasi-biennial change in the flux of these neutrinos.

Sakurai, K.↗

Solar neutrino: Flux, cosmic rays and the 11 year solar cycle

It is shown that the results of maximum likelihood treatment of Monte Carlo simulation with constant production rate of 7.6 SNU and 1.Epsilon SNU are consistent with the constant production rate when the tests of hypotheses (e.g., t-test, sigma squared-test, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, run test, etc.) are applied to the two groups of data formed from sunspot minimum range and sunspot maximum range, whereas the real data pulsates with the solar activity cycle. It is shown that SN flux-change is in opposition phase to the solar activity cycle and lags behind the latter by about one year. A correlation between SN flux and the cosmic rays is suggested.

Raychaudhuri, P.↗

E sub 6 leptoquarks and the solar neutrino problem

The possibility that non-conventional neutrino oscillations take place in the superstring inspired E sub 6 models is considered. In this context, the influence of leptoquark mediated interactions of the neutrinos with nucleons in the resonant flavor conversion is discussed. It is shown that this effect can be significant for v sub e - v sub tau oscillations if these neutrinos have masses required in the ordinary Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect, and may lead to a solution of the solar neutrino problem even in the absence of vacuum mixings. On the other hand, this model cannot lead to a resonant behavior in the sun if the neutrinos are massless.

Roulet, Esteban↗

Possible explanation of the solar-neutrino puzzle

A new derivation of the Mikheyev and Smirnov (1985) mechanism for the conversion of electron neutrinos into mu neutrinos when traversing the sun is presented, and various hypotheses set forth. It is assumed that this process is responsible for the detection of fewer solar neutrinos than expected, with neutrinos below a minimum energy, E(m), being undetectable. E(m) is found to be about 6 MeV, and the difference of the squares of the respective neutrino masses is calculated to be 6 X 10 to the - 5th sq eV. A restriction on the neutrino mixing angle is assumed such that the change of density near the crossing point is adiabatic. It is predicted that no resonance conversion of neutrinos will occur in the dense core of supernovae, but conversion of electron neutrinos to mu neutrinos will occur as they escape outward through a density region around 100.

Bethe, H. A.↗