Status and potentialities of the JUNO experiment

One of the main open issues of neutrino physics is the determination of the mass hierarchy, discriminating between the two possible ordering of the mass eigenvalues, known as Normal and Inverted Hierarchies. The solution of this puzzle would have a significant impact both on elementary particle physics and astrophysics. A possible way to investigate the problem is the study, with medium baseline reactor antineutrinos, of the mass dependent corrections to inverse $\beta$ decays. This is the idea pursued by JUNO, a multipurpose underground liquid scintillator experiment that will start data taking in very few years from now. The main characteristics and the status of the experiment are discussed here, together with its rich physics program. We focus in particular on the potentiality for mass hierarchy determination, the main goal of the experiment, on the oscillation parameters accurate measurements and on the supernova and solar neutrinos and geoneutrino studies.Comment: Invited talk given, on behalf of the JUNO Collaboration, by Vito Antonelli at the XVII International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes (Venice, 13-17 March 2017

Status and the perspectives of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO)

One of the remaining undetermined fundamental aspects in neutrino physics is the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy, i.e. discriminating between the two possible orderings of the mass eigenvalues, known as Normal and Inverted Hierarchies. The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kt Liquid Scintillator Detector currently under construction in the South of China, can determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and improve the precision of three oscillation parameters by one order of magnitude. Moreover, thanks to its large liquid scintillator mass, JUNO will also contribute to study neutrinos from non-reactor sources such as solar neutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos, geoneutrinos, supernova burst and diffuse supernova neutrinos. Furthermore, JUNO will also contribute to nucleon decay studies. In this work, I will describe the status and the perspectives of the JUNO experiment

Neutrino oscillations and Lorentz Invariance Violation in a Finslerian Geometrical model

Neutrino oscillations are one of the first evidences of physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). Since Lorentz Invariance is a fundamental symmetry of the SM, recently also neutrino physics has been explored to verify the eventual modification of this symmetry and its potential magnitude. In this work we study the consequences of the introduction of Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) in the high energy neutrinos propagation and evaluate the impact of this eventual violation on the oscillation predictions. An effective theory explaining these physical effects is introduced via Modified Dispersion Relations. This approach, originally introduced by Coleman and Glashow, corresponds in our model to a modification of the special relativity geometry. Moreover, the generalization of this perspective leads to the introduction of a maximum attainable velocity which is specific of the particle. This can be formalized in Finsler geometry, a more general theory of space-time. In the present paper the impact of this kind of LIV on neutrino phenomenology is studied, in particular by analyzing the corrections introduced in neutrino oscillation probabilities for different values of neutrino energies and baselines of experimental interest. The possibility of further improving the present constraints on CPT-even LIV coefficients by means of our analysis is also discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication with minor revisions, will appear on European Physics Journal

Solar Neutrinos

The study of solar neutrinos has given since ever a fundamental contribution both to astroparticle and to elementary particle physics, offering an ideal test of solar models and offering at the same time relevant indications on the fundamental interactions among particles. After reviewing the striking results of the last two decades, which were determinant to solve the long standing solar neutrino puzzle and refine the Standard Solar Model, we focus our attention on the more recent results in this field and on the experiments presently running or planned for the near future. The main focus at the moment is to improve the knowledge of the mass and mixing pattern and especially to study in detail the lowest energy part of the spectrum, which represents most of solar neutrino spectrum but is still a partially unexplored realm. We discuss this research project and the way in which present and future experiments could contribute to make the theoretical framemork more complete and stable, understanding the origin of some "anomalies" that seem to emerge from the data and contributing to answer some present questions, like the exact mechanism of the vacuum to matter transition and the solution of the so called solar metallicity problem.Comment: 51 pages, to be published in Special Issue on Neutrino Physics, Advances in High Energy Physics Hindawi Publishing Corporation 201

Present and Future Contributions of Reactor Experiments to Mass Ordering and Neutrino Oscillation Studies

After a long a glorious history, marked by the first direct proofs of neutrino existence and of the mixing between the first and third neutrino generations, the reactor antineutrino experiments are still well alive and will continue to give important contributions to the development of elementary particle physics and astrophysics. In parallel to the SBL (short baseline) experiments, that will be dedicated mainly to the search for sterile neutrinos, a new kind of experiments will start playing an important role: reactor experiments with a \u201cmedium\u201d value, around 50 km, of the baseline, somehow in the middle between the SBL and the LBL (long baselines), like KamLAND, which in the recent past gave essential contributions to the developments of neutrino physics. These new medium baseline reactor experiments can be very important, mainly for the study of neutrino mass ordering. The first example of this kind, the liquid scintillator JUNO experiment, characterized by a very high mass and an unprecedented energy resolution, will soon start data collecting in China. Its main aspects are discussed here, together with its potentialities for what concerns the mass ordering investigation and also the other issues that can be studied with this detector, spanning from the accurate oscillation parameter determination to the study of solar neutrinos, geoneutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos and neutrinos emitted by supernovas and to the search for signals of potential Lorentz invariance violation

Recent results on pp-chain solar neutrinos with the Borexino detector

Measuring all neutrino components is the most direct way to test the standard solar model (SSM). Despite the great results obtained so far, important questions such as the solar metallicity remain open. A precise measurement of the solar pp chain and the CNO cycle would settle this controversy between high (HZ) and low (LZ) metallicity compositions of the Sun. Solar neutrinos allow the determination of oscillation parameters, in particular the \u3b812 mixing angle and, to a lesser degree the \u394m212 mass splitting. Furthermore the measurement of the electron neutrino survival probability Pee as a function of neutrino energy allows one to directly probe the MSW-LMA mechanism of neutrino oscillations In this work I will report the first simultaneous precision spectroscopic measurement of the complete pp-chain and its implications for both solar and neutrino physics with the Borexino detector

Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics with the JUNO Detector

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a 20 kton liquid scintillator multi-purpose underground detector, under construction near the Chinese city of Jiangmen, with data collection expected to start in 2021. The main goal of the experiment is the neutrino mass hierarchy determination, with more than three sigma significance, and the high-precision neutrino oscillation parameter measurements, detecting electron anti-neutrinos emitted from two nearby (baseline of about 53 km) nuclear power plants. Besides, the unprecedented liquid scintillator-type detector performance in target mass, energy resolution, energy calibration precision, and low-energy threshold features a rich physics program for the detection of low-energy astrophysical neutrinos, such as galactic core-collapse supernova neutrinos, solar neutrinos, and geo-neutrinos

The EDELWEISS Experiment : Status and Outlook

The EDELWEISS Dark Matter search uses low-temperature Ge detectors with heat and ionisation read- out to identify nuclear recoils induced by elastic collisions with WIMPs from the galactic halo. Results from the operation of 70 g and 320 g Ge detectors in the low-background environment of the Modane Underground Laboratory (LSM) are presented.Comment: International Conference on Dark Matter in Astro and Particle Physics (Dark 2000), Heidelberg, Germany, 10-16 Jul 2000, v3 minor revision

High sensitivity double beta decay study of 116-Cd and 100-Mo with the BOREXINO Counting Test Facility (CAMEO project)

The unique features (super-low background and large sensitive volume) of the CTF and BOREXINO set ups are used in the CAMEO project for a high sensitivity study of 100-Mo and 116-Cd neutrinoless double beta decay. Pilot measurements with 116-Cd and Monte Carlo simulations show that the sensitivity of the CAMEO experiment (in terms of the half-life limit for neutrinoless double beta decay) is (3-5) 10^24 yr with a 1 kg source of 100-Mo (116-Cd, 82-Se, and 150-Nd) and about 10^26 yr with 65 kg of enriched 116-CdWO_4 crystals placed in the liquid scintillator of the CTF. The last value corresponds to a limit on the neutrino mass of less than 0.06 eV. Similarly with 1000 kg of 116-CdWO_4 crystals located in the BOREXINO apparatus the neutrino mass limit can be pushed down to m_nu<0.02 eV.Comment: 29 pages, LaTex, 9 eps figure