Neutrinos from the Earth: Status and Perspectives

Abstract

Constraints on the Earth's composition and on its radiogenic energy budget come from the detection of geoneutrinos, i.e. electron antineutrinos produced in beta decays along the the decay chains of 238 U and 232 Th existing in the interior of our planet. The KamLAND and Borexino experiments recently reported the geoneutrino flux and other experiments are starting or planning in different countries of the world. We report here the main available results and the future perspectives about these special probes of the Earth's interior. Since reactor antineutrinos represent the main source of background in geoneutrinos detection, we also report updated evaluation of reactor antineutrino signals for the different experimental sites in the world, taking into account the most recent reactors operational data.

Experimental aspects of geoneutrino detection: Status and perspectives

“…There are few laboratories in the world suited to host large detectors. A list of the most relevant ones is presented in Table 4, and a more detailed list can be found in [77].…”

“…The total expected reactor antineutrino signal, the expected reactor antineutrino signal in the geoneutrino energy window (E νe < 3.27 MeV), the predicted geoneutrino signal, and the reactorto-geoneutrino ratio for the relevant energy range are presented in Table 4. The data on the predicted reactor signals are compiled using the estimates from [75] for JUNO, that include 2 future reactors, contributing more than 90% to the total, from [76] for Jingping site, and from [77] for the rest of the locations. The geoneutrino signals were calculated by Huang et al in [24] using their Reference EARTH Model.…”

“…The calculations for KamLAND are performed for the actual situation with Japanese reactors off. The data on the predicted reactor signals are compiled using the estimates from[75,76,77]. The geoneutrino signals were calculated by Huang et al in[24] using their Reference EARTH Model…”