Borexino from the North side of LNGS's underground Hall C in September 2015. It is shown close to being completely covered in thermal insulation (seen as a silvery wrapping), providing a relatively cost-effective way to further improve its unprecedented radiopurity levels.
Detector characteristics
Location
Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
Start of data-taking
2007
End of data-taking
2021
Detection technique
Elastic scattering on liquid scintillator (PC+PPO)
Height
16.9 m
Width
18 m
Active mass(volume)
278 tonnes (315 m3)
≈100 tonnes fiducial
Borexino is a deep underground particle physics experiment to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos. The detector is the world's most radio-pure liquid scintillator calorimeter and is protected by 3,800 meters of water-equivalent depth (a volume of overhead rock equivalent in shielding power to that depth of water). The scintillator is pseudocumene and PPO which is held in place by a thin nylon sphere. It is placed within a stainless steel sphere which holds the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) used as signal detectors and is shielded by a water tank to protect it against external radiation. Outward pointing PMT's look for any outward facing light flashes to tag incoming cosmic muons[1] that manage to penetrate the overburden of the mountain above. Neutrino energy can be determined through the number of photoelectrons measured in the PMT's. While the position can be determined by extrapolating the difference in arrival times of photons at PMT's throughout the chamber.[2]
The primary aim of the experiment is to make a precise measurement of the individual neutrino fluxes from the Sun and compare them to the Standard solar model predictions. This will allow scientists to test and to further understand the functioning of the Sun (e.g., nuclear fusion processes taking place at the core of the Sun, solar composition, opacity, matter distribution, etc.) and will also help determine properties of neutrino oscillations, including the MSW effect. Specific goals of the experiment are to detect beryllium-7, boron-8, pp, pep and CNO solar neutrinos as well as anti-neutrinos from the Earth and nuclear power plants. The project may also be able to detect neutrinos from supernovae within our galaxy with a special potential to detect the elastic scattering of neutrinos onto protons, due to neutral current interactions. Borexino is a member of the Supernova Early Warning System.[3] Searches for rare processes and potential unknown particles are also underway.
The name Borexino is the Italian diminutive of BOREX (Boron solar neutrino Experiment), after the original 1 kT-fiducial experimental proposal with a different scintillator (TMB), was discontinued because of a shift in focus in physics goals as well as financial constraints.[4] The experiment is located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso near the town of L'Aquila, Italy, and is supported by an international collaboration with researchers from Italy, the United States, Germany, France, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.[5] The experiment is funded by multiple national agencies; the principal ones are INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Italy) and NSF (National Science Foundation, USA). In May 2017, Borexino reached 10 years of continuous operation since the start of its data-taking period in 2007.
The SOX experiment was a sub-project designed to study the possible existence of sterile neutrinos or other anomalous effects in neutrino oscillations at short ranges through the use of a neutrino generator based on radioactive cerium-144 placed under the water tank of the Borexino detector. This project was cancelled in early 2018 due to the cancellation in 2017 of the contract for cerium-144 by the Russian Mayak fuel reprocessing plant. The cancellation is thought to be connected to the anomalous airborne radioactivity increase in Europe during the autumn of 2017, whose source was eventually localized to the Mayak reprocessing plant.
The entire Borexino experiment was terminated in October 2021.[6]
^Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Agostini, M.; Altenmüller, K.; Appel, S.; Atroshchenko, V.; Bagdasarian, Z.; Basilico, D.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Biondi, R.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A. (November 2020). "Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun". Nature. 587 (7835): 577–582. arXiv:2006.15115. Bibcode:2020Natur.587..577B. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2934-0. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 33239797. S2CID 227174644.
^Borexino Collaboration (2009). "The Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso". Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. 600 (3): 568–593. arXiv:0806.2400. Bibcode:2009NIMPA.600..568B. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2008.11.076. S2CID 18786899.
^Georg G. Raffelt (1996). "BOREXINO". Stars As Laboratories for Fundamental Physics: The Astrophysics of Neutrinos, Axions, and Other Weakly Interacting Particles. University of Chicago Press. pp. 393–394. ISBN 978-0226702728.
Borexino is a deep underground particle physics experiment to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos. The detector is the world's most radio-pure liquid...
researchers and observers. The Borexino detector is located at the Laboratori Nazionali de Gran Sasso, Italy. Borexino is an actively used detector, and...
used the new LNGS timing facility by the Borexino collaboration, and the geodetic data obtained by LVD, Borexino, and ICARUS (see above). They also updated...
Bibcode:2011JPhCS.271a2031G. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/271/1/012031. S2CID 4776237. The Borexino Collaboration (2020). "Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the...
substance. MINOS used a solid plastic scintillator watched by phototubes; Borexino uses a liquid pseudocumene scintillator also watched by phototubes; and...
2022-07-11. Agostini, M.; et al. (Borexino Collaboration) (2015). "Test of electric charge conservation with Borexino". Physical Review Letters. 115 (23):...
neutrinos produced by the CNO cycle in the Sun were published in 2020 by the BOREXINO collaboration. This was also the first experimental confirmation that the...
output). With this outcome Borexino has unraveled both the two processes powering the Sun and many main sequence stars. BOREXINO COBRA CRESST CUORE/Cuoricino...
Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment, or in neutrino experiments such as KamLAND and Borexino. It is an essential process to experiments involving low-energy neutrinos...
in Earth's interior) from geoneutrino measurements. Analysts from the Borexino collaboration have been able to get to 53 events of neutrinos originating...
1088/0954-3899/37/7A/075021. Agostini, M.; et al. (Borexino Coll.) (2015). "Test of Electric Charge Conservation with Borexino". Physical Review Letters. 115 (23):...
dark matter. Seven neutrino experiments (Super-K, LVD, IceCube, KamLAND, Borexino, Daya Bay, and HALO) work together as the Supernova Early Warning System...
Bonfini, Giuseppe; et al. (Borexino Collaboration) (7 August 2015). "Spectroscopy of geoneutrinos from 2056 days of Borexino data". Physical Review D....
Kamiokande, Super-Kamiokande, SNO, Borexino, KamLAND. Beryllium7, pep, and PP neutrinos have been seen only by Borexino to date. The highest energy neutrinos...
1086/508768. ISSN 0004-637X. The Borexino Collaboration (2008-08-29). "New results on solar neutrino fluxes from 192 days of Borexino data". Physical Review Letters...
completed her PhD at Princeton University in 2001 with her thesis The Borexino Solar Neutrino Experiment and its Scintillator Containment Vessel. She...
Sox, playing in the CCBL Cancelled SOX experiment in neutrino physics, Borexino detector, Italy SOX gene family Several Sulfur oxides (SO x or SOx) Sox...
Latitudinal Temperature Probe System, an instrument in the physics experiment Borexino Local Transport Plans in England Let the Peoples Sing international choir...
Laboratories and will be sensitive to WIMPs with SI cross section of 10−48 cm2. BOREXINO, a real-time detector, installed at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso...
quantum measurement Quantum correlations discovered in massive mirrors Borexino spots solar neutrinos from elusive fusion cycle First observation of a...
Researchers are involved in studies of the phenomenon of oscillation (Borexino, Double Chooz) and on future projects addressing the measurement of the...
and GLAST at SLAC ATLAS, CMS and LHCb at LHC, CERN COMPASS at SPS, CERN Borexino at Gran Sasso Laboratory DUNE, MINOS, Muon g-2, and Mu2e at Fermilab Enriched...
supernovae. There are currently seven neutrino detector members of SNEWS: Borexino, Daya Bay, KamLAND, HALO, IceCube, LVD, and Super-Kamiokande. SNEWS began...
neutrino and the speed of light. In May 2012, the Gran Sasso experiments BOREXINO, ICARUS, LVD and OPERA all measured neutrino velocity with a short-pulsed...
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