Potential of a Neutrino Detector in the ANDES Underground Laboratory for Geophysics and Astrophysics of Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of a deep underground neutrino detector at the ANDES laboratory for advancing geophysics and astrophysics, focusing on geoneutrinos and supernova neutrinos, highlighting its unique geographical advantages.

Contribution

It assesses the scientific capabilities of a proposed liquid scintillator detector at ANDES, emphasizing its role in neutrino physics and geophysics in the Southern Hemisphere.

Findings

Potential to study geoneutrinos and supernova neutrinos effectively.

Advantages of geographic location for neutrino detection.

Complementary role to Northern Hemisphere detectors.

Abstract

The construction of the Agua Negra tunnels that will link Argentina and Chile under the Andes, the world longest mountain range, opens the possibility to build the first deep underground labo- ratory in the Southern Hemisphere. This laboratory has the acronym ANDES (Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site) and its overburden could be as large as \sim 1.7 km of rock, or 4500 mwe, providing an excellent low background environment to study physics of rare events like the ones induced by neutrinos and/or dark matter. In this paper we investigate the physics potential of a few kiloton size liquid scintillator detector, which could be constructed in the ANDES laboratory as one of its possible scientific programs. In particular, we evaluate the impact of such a detector for the studies of geoneutrinos and galactic supernova neutrinos assuming a fiducial volume of 3 kilotons as a reference size. We emphasize the complementary roles of such a detector to the ones in the Northern Hemisphere neutrino facilities through some advantages due to its geographical location.