Solar neutrino interactions with {sup 18}O in the SuperKamiokande water Cerenkov detector

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1999 · Physical Review, C

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.59.515· OSTI ID:289076

Haxton, W C ^[1]; Robertson, R G ^[2]; Haxton, W C; Robertson, R G ^[3]

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1. Institute for Nuclear Theory, Box 351550, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 (United States)
2. Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Box 354290, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 (United States)
3. Department of Physics, Box 351560, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 (United States)

The ratio of {sup 18}O nuclei to electrons in SuperKamiokande is quite small, about 1:5000. However, this nucleus provides two unpaired neutrons and a low threshold for solar neutrino absorption, resulting in an unusually large cross section. The {sup 18}O nuclei, together with {sup 17}O and deuterium, will produce in excess of 460 scattered electrons per year with energies above the initial SuperKamiokande threshold of 6.5 MeV, or about 6.7{percent} of the total solar neutrino signal, for an electron neutrino flux scaled to the current SuperKamiokande counting rate. We explore whether this might complicate efforts to extract the neutrino spectrum from elastic scattering events and whether there might be any prospect of combining {sup 18}O and elastic scattering events to separate charged- and neutral-current interactions. Under current operating conditions the answers are no, as the Fermi, Gamow-Teller, and forbidden contributions to the {sup 18}O cross section conspire to produce a nearly isotropic cross section. Thus most of the events are indistinguishable from background. This result is relevant to SuperKamiokande detection of solar antineutrinos, which arise in certain oscillation scenarios. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}

• OSTI ID: 289076
• Journal Information: Physical Review, C, Journal Name: Physical Review, C Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 59; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
CHERENKOV COUNTERS
DEUTERIUM
NEUTRINO DETECTION
NEUTRINO REACTIONS
OXYGEN 17
OXYGEN 18
SOLAR NEUTRINOS