Speaker
Summary
The SNO+ Experiment, successor of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and located
in the SNOLAB underground laboratory in Canada, is a multi-purpose loaded scintillator
neutrino experiment which first aim is to detect the neutrinoless double beta decay process
in Te-130. The detection of such a rare nuclear decay will imply physics beyond the
standard model and can prove the nature, as well as the mass hierarchy, of the neutrino.
Due to the expected low rate of the decay, the experiment needs to avoid any possible
contamination entangling the expected signal. Placing it underground, reduce the possible
radioactive contamination during its installation and applying background reduction
techniques is mandatory.
The experiment is divided in three phases: filling the sensitive volume with water, scintillator
and Te loaded scintillator phase. In each phase different physics can be studied,
although its main focus will be during the Te loaded scintillator phase. In this talk the
status of the experiment, which expects to start taking data with water in June 2016,
will be presented. Special attention will be given to the recently new loading technique
developed by the collaboration to dissolve the Te into the organic scintillator (LAB). Furthermore,
the expected sensitivity and background model will be discussed, showing the
competitiveness of the experiment in the field.
