Speaker
Pablo Fernández
(UAM)
Description
The GADZOOKS! project is the proposed upgrade of the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector in order to enable it to efficiently detect thermal neutrons. Inverse beta decay reactions, as well as charged current quasi-elastic (CCQE) scattering of low energy anti-neutrinos (up to a few hundreds of MeV) in SK, produce one positron and one neutron in the final state. The neutron thermalizes and is captured by gadolinium (Gd). The capture is followed by a ~8 MeV gamma cascade. The observation of this cascade would mean that SK could identify these reactions as genuine with very high coincidence and efficiency (>80%).
GADZOOKS! will enable Super-Kamiokande - and water Cherenkov detectors in general – to pursue a wealth of physics which is currently inaccessible due to backgrounds. The most important will be the first observation of the diffuse supernova neutrino background: Super-Kamiokande enriched with Gd can discover it after few years of running. In addition, Gd-loading has benefits for other physics currently shadowed by backgrounds, such as subtle features of supernova bursts, pre-supernovae and reactor antineutrinos. Gd would also provide improvements for atmospheric and accelerator neutrino analysis and proton decay searches.
The main R&D program towards GADZOOKS! is EGADS: a 200 ton, fully instrumented tank built in a new cavern in the Kamioka mine. EGADS incorporates all the necessary subsystems to make GADZOOKS! a reality.
This contribution will describe all the main physics topics and the description and status of the EGADS R&D, which is being carried out for the realization of GADZOOKS!
| Registration number following "ICRC2015-I/" | 104 |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | -- not specified -- |
Primary author
Pablo Fernández
(UAM)
