Particle and Astroparticle Physics Seminar

Studying Neutrinos with SNO+

Erica Caden

SNOLAB/Laurentian

SNO+ is a multi-purpose experiment whose main purpose is to study the nature of the neutrino mass through observation of neutrino-less double beta decay. Detection of this rare process would indicate that neutrinos are elementary Majorana particles, different from the rest of the standard model family of particles. SNO+ can also measure neutrino oscillation parameters, detect geo and reactor anti-neutrinos and low energy solar neutrinos while its main goal is to search for neutrino-less double beta decay in the isotope Tellurium-130. The first of the three SNO+ phases started in May 2017, with the detector filled with ultra-pure water. SNO+ began the transition to the scintillator phase in late 2018. Later this year, the double-beta decay phase will start when the ultra-pure liquid scintillator will be loaded with 3.9 tonnes of natural tellurium, for a half-life sensitivity larger than 2x10^26 years. Previous results, current status, and the potential and prospect of SNO+ for precise solar neutrino measurements and neutrino-less double beta decay search will be presented.