Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive geoneutrino measurement using the Borexino detector, located at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy. The analysis is the result of 3262.74 days of data between December 2007 and April 2019. The paper describes improved analysis techniques and optimized data selection, which includes enlarged fiducial volume and sophisticated cosmogenic veto. The reported exposure of represents an increase by a factor of two over a previous Borexino analysis reported in 2015. By observing geoneutrinos (68% interval) from and , a geoneutrino signal of TNU with total precision was obtained. This result assumes the same Th/U mass ratio as found in chondritic CI meteorites but compatible results were found when contributions from and were both fit as free parameters. Antineutrino background from reactors is fit unconstrained and found compatible with the expectations. The null-hypothesis of observing a geoneutrino signal from the mantle is excluded at a 99.0% C.L. when exploiting detailed knowledge of the local crust near the experimental site. Measured mantle signal of TNU corresponds to the production of a radiogenic heat of (68% interval) from and in the mantle. Assuming 18% contribution of in the mantle and of total radiogenic heat of the lithosphere, the Borexino estimate of the total radiogenic heat of the Earth is , which corresponds to the convective Urey ratio of . These values are compatible with different geological predictions, however there is a tension with those Earth models which predict the lowest concentration of heat-producing elements in the mantle. In addition, by constraining the number of expected reactor antineutrino events, the existence of a hypothetical georeactor at the center of the Earth having power greater than 2.4 TW is excluded at 95% C.L. Particular attention is given to the description of all analysis details which should be of interest for the next generation of geoneutrino measurements using liquid scintillator detectors.
50 More- Received 5 September 2019
- Corrected 25 February 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.012009
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Corrections
25 February 2020
Correction: The order of Figures 14 and 15 was presented incorrectly and has been fixed. The previously published Figure 14(a) contained the wrong image and has been set right.
Synopsis
Earth As a Neutrino Source
Published 21 January 2020
The Borexino experiment has doubled its data on neutrinos generated inside Earth, providing new constraints on geological models of the mantle.
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