Speaker
Kevin Labe
(University of Chicago)
Description
SNO+ is a multipurpose, largescale neutrino experiment located deep underground in Sudbury, Ontario. In its initial water-fill phase, it will be highly sensitive to the so-called invisible modes of nucleon decay, a model-independent description of any channel in which nucleons decay to non-visible daughters, such as n $\rightarrow \nu \nu \nu$. Nucleon disappearance in $^{16}$O can lead to excited states of $^{15}$O or $^{15}$N, which deexcite through gamma emission at modestly high energy, forming our signal. The leading limits on this mode were set in SNO and Kamland. However, SNO suffered from backgrounds due to its D$_2$O that will not be present in SNO+, and the branching ratio for the C nuclide studied in Kamland is unfavorable compared to that for O. The major backgrounds in SNO+ will come from solar and reactor neutrinos, and decays of $^{214}$Bi and $^{208}$Tl. We expect to achieve world-leading sensitivity to these modes after only six months of water phase data taking. We report an improvement in sensitivity over our previous estimates from an improved analysis technique that is based on a likelihood analysis of the energy spectrum.
| Oral or Poster Presentation | Poster |
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Primary author
Kevin Labe
(University of Chicago)
