The Physics Potential of the LENA Detector

TL;DR

LENA is a proposed large-volume liquid-scintillator detector designed for low-energy neutrino detection, offering high-precision spectroscopy, background discrimination, and potential for groundbreaking observations of solar, supernova, geo-neutrinos, and proton decay.

Contribution

This paper introduces the LENA detector concept, highlighting its capabilities for neutrino spectroscopy, background discrimination, and its potential applications in astrophysics and particle physics.

Findings

Potential to detect the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background for the first time.

Significantly improved sensitivity to proton decay into Kaon and antineutrino.

Capability to reconstruct neutrino events at GeV energies for long-baseline experiments.

Abstract

The large-volume liquid-scintillator detector LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy) has been proposed as a next-generation experiment for low-energy neutrinos. High-precision spectroscopy of solar, Supernova and geo-neutrinos provides a new access to the otherwise unobservable interiors of Earth, Sun and heavy stars. Due to the potent background discrimination, the detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background is expected for the first time in LENA. The sensitivity of the proton lifetime for the decay into Kaon and antineutrino will be increased by an order of magnitude over existing experimental limits. Recent studies indicate that liquid-scintillator detectors are capable to reconstruct neutrino events even at GeV energies, providing the opportunity to use LENA as far detector in a long-baseline neutrino beam experiment.