Precision Measurement of the 7Be Solar Neutrino Interaction Rate in Borexino

Abstract

Solar neutrinos, since their first detection nearly forty years ago, have revealed valuable information regarding the source of energy production in the Sun, and have demonstrated that neutrino oscillations are well described by the Large Mixing Angle (LMA) oscillation parameters with matter interactions due to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect.

This thesis presents a precision measurement of the <super>7</super>Be solar neutrino interaction rate within Borexino, an underground liquid scintillator detector that is designed to measure solar neutrino interactions through neutrino-electron elastic scattering. The thesis includes a detailed description of the analysis techniques developed and used for this measurement as well as an evaluation of the relevant systematic uncertainties that affect the precision of the result.

The rate of neutrino-electron elastic scattering from 0.862 MeV <super>7</super>Be neutrinos is determined to be 45.4 +/- 1.6 (stat) +/- 1.5 (sys) counts/day/100 ton. Due to extensive detector calibrations and improved analysis methods, the systematic uncertainty in the interaction rate has been reduced by more than a factor of two from the previous evaluation. In the no-oscillation hypothesis, the interaction rate corresponds to a 0.862 MeV <super>7</super>Be electron neutrino flux of (2.75 +/- 0.13) x 10<super>9</super> cm<super>-2</super> sec<super>-1</super>.

Including the predicted neutrino flux from the Standard Solar Model yields an electron neutrino survival probability of Pee 0.51 +/- 0.07 and rules out the no-oscillation hypothesis at 5.1&sigma. The LMA-MSW neutrino oscillation model predicts a transition in the solar Pee value between low ( < 1 MeV) and high (> 10 MeV) energies which has not yet been experimentally confirmed. This result, in conjunction with the Standard Solar Model, represents the most precise measurement of the electron neutrino survival probability for solar neutrinos at sub-MeV energies.