Slow Liquid Scintillator Candidates for MeV-scale Neutrino Experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates slow liquid scintillator candidates for neutrino experiments, focusing on optimizing light yield and decay times to enhance detection capabilities for MeV-scale neutrinos.

Contribution

It identifies an optimal LAB-based scintillator mixture that effectively separates Cherenkov and scintillation lights, improving neutrino detection sensitivity.

Findings

LAB with 0.07 g/L PPO and 13 mg/L bis-MSB offers best Cherenkov-scintillation separation

The selected mixture provides a high light yield and suitable decay time

Results support the use of slow liquid scintillators in future neutrino experiments

Abstract

Slow liquid scintillator Cherenkov detectors have been proposed as part of several future neutrino experiments because they can provide both directionality and energy measurements. This feature is expected to enhance the sensitivities for MeV-scale neutrino physics, including solar physics, the search for supernova relic neutrino, and the study of geo-sciences. In this study, the characteristics of a slow liquid scintillator were investigated, along with the light yields and decay time constants for various combinations of linear alkylbenzene (LAB), 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO), and 1,4-bis (2-methylstyryl)-benzene (bis-MSB). The results of our study indicated that LAB with 0.07 g/L of PPO and 13 mg/L of bis-MSB was the best candidate for an effective separation between Cherenkov and scintillation lights with a reasonably high light yield.