Geo- and reactor antineutrino sensitivity at THEIA
We present the sensitivity of the THEIA experiment to low-energy geo- and reactor antineutrinos. For this study, we consider one of the possible proposed designs, a 17.8-ktonne fiducial volume THEIA-25 detector filled with water-based liquid scintillator placed at Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). We demonstrate THEIA’s sensitivity to measure the geo- and reactor antineutrinos via inverse-beta decay interactions after one year of data taking with $$11.9 × 10^{32}$$ free target protons. Considering all uncertainties on input throughout the whole analysis chain, the expected number of geo- and reactor antineutrinos is $$220^{+30}_{–24}$$ (stats+syst) and $$168^{+26}_{–24}$$ (stat+sys), respectively, after one year ofmore »