Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 72: Niederenergie Neutrinophysik IV

T 72.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 11, 2015, 18:05–18:20, I.13.71 (HS 28)

Positron discrimination in large-volume liquid scintillator detectors using 3D topological reconstruction — •Björn Wonsak — Universität Hamburg, Hamburg

Over the last 20 years, large-volume liquid scintillator detectors have been very successful in measuring neutrinos with energies of a few MeV. One main feature responsible for this is the coincidence between a prompt positron signal and the delayed neutron signal coming from an inverse beta decay. This is used to identify electron anti-neutrinos with high efficiency. However, background mimicking this coincidence e.g. from cosmogenics can still be a limiting factor for this kind of experiments. Therefore, the possibilty to individually identify positrons is highly desirable. In addition, this capability would enable the discrimination of beta+ decays and thus increase the potential to discover CNO-neutrinos from the Sun where the beta+ decay of C-11 is a major background source.

In this talk, we present a new reconstruction method delivering 3D topological pictures of the energy deposition in large-volume liquid scintillator detectors with a resolution of better than 20 cm. This method was originally developed for high-energy particles of a few GeV. However, it turned out that even at low energies it can reveal some topological information containing hints on the presence of photons accompanying a positron annihilation.