The SNO+ experiment physics goals and background mitigation

TL;DR

The SNO+ experiment aims to detect neutrinoless double-beta decay and other neutrino phenomena using a large liquid scintillator detector, with detailed focus on sensitivity and background mitigation techniques.

Contribution

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of SNO+'s sensitivity to 0νββ decay and introduces methods for background reduction in large-volume liquid scintillator experiments.

Findings

SNO+ can effectively search for neutrinoless double-beta decay.

Background mitigation techniques are crucial for sensitivity.

The experiment also studies solar, reactor, and supernova neutrinos.

Abstract

The main physics goal of the SNO+ experiment is the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0$\nu\beta\beta$), a rare process which if detected, will prove the Majorana nature of neutrinos and provide information on the absolute scale of the neutrino mass. Additional physics goals include the study of solar neutrinos, anti-neutrinos from nuclear reactors and the Earth's natural radioactivity as well as Supernovae neutrinos. Located in the SNOLAB (Canada) deep underground laboratory, it will re-use the SNO detector. A short phase with the detector completely filled with water has started at the beginning of 2017, before running the detector with scintillator. This paper describes in details the SNO+ sensitivity to 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decays, as well as the other physics goals. Crucial to these large volume liquid scintillator experiments, is the ability to constraint the low-energy background from radioactive decays. Methods to mitigate those are also presented.