Speaker
Description
The energy production in the Sun, resulting from hydrogen-to-helium fusion, involves two distinct processes: the proton-proton (pp) chain and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle. These fusion reactions give rise to electron flavor neutrinos known as solar neutrinos. Over the last few decades, the detection of solar neutrinos has provided compelling evidence for neutrino flavor oscillations. Additionally, these detections have significantly enhanced our understanding of the internal processes within stars, especially those taking place in the core of the Sun. Despite extensive research in solar neutrino physics, this field remains dynamic as we enter the era of precision measurements.
This presentation offers an overview of the detection methods employed in two liquid scintillator- based experiments: Borexino, situated at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy), and JUNO, currently in the construction phase in Jianjmen (China). While Borexino concluded its data-taking in October 2021, JUNO's construction is expected to be finalized by the end of 2023.
The first part of the talk will focus on the recent achievements of the Borexino experiment. Notably, it has made significant progress in improving the precision of the CNO measurement after its first observation, and introduced a novel technique called "Correlated and Integrated Directionality" (CID). This new method enables the detection of solar neutrinos by exploiting the sub-dominant Cherenkov information produced by sub-MeV solar neutrinos in a liquid scintillator detector. Furthermore, the talk will focus on the sensitivity studies conducted in JUNO for intermediate energy solar neutrinos, including $^{7}$Be, pep, and CNO. It will be shown that JUNO has the potential to substantially improve the existing results on solar neutrinos.
