Status of the SNO+ Experiment

TL;DR

The SNO+ experiment is a large-scale neutrino detector aiming to detect neutrino-less double beta decay using liquid scintillator loaded with tellurium-130, with additional physics goals including neutrino and supernova detection.

Contribution

This paper reports on the current status, technical setup, and sensitivity prospects of the SNO+ experiment, highlighting its potential to explore the inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses.

Findings

SNO+ employs 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator with 1.3 tonnes of tellurium-130.

The experiment has low backgrounds and energy threshold, enabling multiple neutrino physics topics.

Future phases aim to probe the inverted hierarchy parameter space.

Abstract

The SNO+ experiment is located at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. It will employ 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator loaded, in its initial phase, with 1.3 tonnes of $^{130}$Te (0.5% by mass) for a low-background and high-isotope-mass search for neutrino-less double beta decay. SNO+ uses the acrylic vessel and PMT array of the SNO detector with several experimental upgrades and necessary adaptations to fill with liquid scintillator. The SNO+ technique can be scaled up with a future high loading Phase II, able to probe to the bottom of the inverted hierarchy parameter space for effective Majorana mass. Low backgrounds and a low energy threshold allow SNO+ to also have other physics topics in its program, including geo- and reactor neutrinos, supernova and solar neutrinos. This will describe the SNO+ approach for the double-beta decay program, the current status of the experiment and its sensitivity prospects.