Solar neutrinos from the CNO fusion cycle: Borexino discovery and implications for the solar physics
Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
- Chair of Nuclear Physics
- RWTH Aachen University
- Technical University of Munich
- Princeton University
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- Lomonosov Moscow State University
- Institute for Celestial Mechanics and Computation of Ephemerides
- Gran Sasso Science Institute
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
- Jagiellonian University in Kraków
- NASU - Institute of Nuclear Research
- Royal Holloway University of London
- Institute for Nuclear Research
- Moscow Engineering Physics Institute
Abstract
Our Sun is powered by the fusion of hydrogen into helium that proceeds in the solar core via two distinct mechanisms: dominant proton-proton (pp) chain and sub-dominant Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen (CNO) cycle. Solar neutrinos are emitted in electron-flavour eigenstate along several distinct reactions of both cycles, each characterized by a specific energy spectrum and flux. These so-called solar neutrinos are the only direct probe of the energy production mechanism in the Sun and stars in general. Borexino, a 280-ton liquid scintillator detector that was taking data from May 2007 to October 2021 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy, is the only experiment to perform a comprehensive spectroscopy of pp chain solar neutrinos and to prove the existence of CNO cycle. This was made possible thanks to an unprecedented radio-purity and thermal stability of the detector. This contribution is focused on the Borexino measurement of CNO solar neutrinos, that allowed us to exclude the absence of CNO signal with high statistical significance. In addition, we used the CNO flux measurement together with the 8B flux stemming from the global analysis of all solar neutrino data to evaluate the abundance of C and N with respect to H in the Sun with solar neutrinos for the first time. Our result agrees with the high metallicity spectroscopic photospheric measurements and shows a ∼2σ tension with the low metallicity ones.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 970 |
| Journal | Proceedings of Science |
| Volume | 444 |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Sept 2024 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Conference
| Title | 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | ICRC 2023 |
| Conference number | 38 |
| Duration | 26 July - 3 August 2023 |
| Website | |
| Location | Nagoya University |
| City | Nagoya |
| Country | Japan |