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Reactor antineutrinos with SNO+

ORAL

Abstract

Historically, the detection of antineutrinos produced in nuclear reactors has been instrumental in confirming neutrino oscillations and measuring neutrino mixing parameters. These reactor antineutrinos have never been observed in a pure water Cherenkov detector, where they interact primarily through inverse beta decay. In this talk, I present a search for reactor antineutrinos using data taken with the SNO+ detector while it was filled with ultra pure water. Importantly, as a water Cherenkov detector, SNO+ achieved unprecedentedly low trigger thresholds and low levels of radioactive backgrounds, which together enable this search. The method I will outline is the lowest-energy analysis of water Cherenkov neutrino detectors ever performed.

Authors

  • Tanner Kaptanoglu

    University of Pennsylvania