arXiv subjects

R. S. Raghavan

Publications and source records attributed to R. S. Raghavan.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Detecting a Nuclear Fission Reactor at the Center of the Earth

A natural nuclear fission reactor with a power output of 3- 10 terawatt at the center of the earth has been proposed as the energy source of the earth's magnetic field. The proposal can be directly tested by a massive liquid scintillation detector that can detect the signature spectrum of antineutrinos from the geo-reactor as well as the direction of the antineutrino source. Such detectors are now in operation or under construction in Japan/Europe. However, the clarity of both types of measurements may be limited by background from antineutrinos from surface power reactors. Future U. S. detectors, relatively more remote from power reactors, may be more suitable for achieving unambiguous spectral and directional evidence for a 3TW geo-reactor.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2002

Probing Non-Standard Couplings of Neutrinos at the Borexino Detector

The present experimental status does not exclude weak-strength non-standard interactions of neutrinos with electrons. These interactions can be revealed in solar neutrino experiments. Our discussion covers several aspects related to this issue. First, we perform an analysis of the Super Kamiokande and SNO data to investigate their sensitivity to such interactions. In particular, we show that the ν_e oscillation into sterile neutrinos can be still allowed if ν_e has extra interactions of the proper strength. Second, we suggest that the Borexino detector can provide good signatures for these non-standard interactions. Indeed, in Borexino the shape of the recoil electron spectrum from the νe \to νe scattering essentially does not depend on the solar neutrino conversion details, since most of the signal comes from the mono-energetic ^7Be neutrinos. Hence, the partial conversion of solar ν_e into a a nearly equal mixture of ν_μand ν_τ, as is indicated by the atmospheric neutrino data, offers the chance to test extra interactions of ν_τ, or of ν_e itself.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

pp-Solar Neutrino Spectroscopy: Return of the Indium Detector

A new indium-loaded liquid scintillator (LS) with up to 15wt% In and high light output promises a breakthrough in the 25y old proposal for observing pp solar neutrinos (nue) by tagged nue capture in 115In. Intense background from the natural beta-decay of In, the single obstacle blocking this project till now, can be reduced by more than x100 with the new In-LS. Only non-In background remains, dramatically relaxing design criteria. Eight tons of In yields ~400 pp nue/y after analysis cuts. With the lowest threshold yet, Q=118 keV, In is the most sensitive detector of the pp nue spectrum, the long sought touchstone for nue conversion.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2000

Gamow-Teller Strengths of the Inverse-Beta Transition 176Yb --> 176Lu for Spectroscopy of Proton-Proton and other sub-MeV Solar Neutrinos

Discrete Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions, 176Yb-->176Lu at low excitation energies have been measured via the (3He,t) reaction at 450 MeV and at 0 degrees. For 176Yb, two low-lying states are observed, setting low thresholds Q(neutrino)=301 and 445 keV for neutrino capture. Capture rates estimated from the measured GT strengths, the simple two-state excitation structure, and the low Q(neutrino) in Yb--Lu indicate that Yb-based neutrino-detectors are well suited for a direct measurement of the complete sub-MeV solar electron-neutrino spectrum (including pp neutrinos) where definitive effects of flavor conversion are expected.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2000

A Measurement of Gamow-Teller Strength for 176Yb -> 176Lu and the Efficiency of a Solar Neutrino Detector

We report a 0-degree 176Yb(p,n)176Lu measurement at IUCF where we used 120 and 160 MeV protons and the energy dependence method to determine GT matrix elements relative to the Fermi matrix element which can be calculated model independently. The data show that there is an isolated concentration of GT strength in the low lying 1+ states making the proposed Low Energy Neutrino Spectroscopy (LENS) detector (based on neutrino captures on 176Yb) sensitive to 7Be and pp neutrinos and a promising detector to resolve the solar neutrino problem.

nucl-ex↗