Probing Earth's Missing Potassium using the Unique Antimatter Signature of Geoneutrinos

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel detection method for Earth's elusive potassium geoneutrinos using antimatter signatures and LiquidO technology, aiming to measure Earth's internal heat contribution more accurately.

Contribution

It introduces an innovative approach combining antimatter signatures and LiquidO detection to observe potassium geoneutrinos for the first time.

Findings

Proposed a new detection framework for potassium geoneutrinos.

Identified ideal isotope targets for detection.

Outlined experimental methodology for first observation.

Abstract

The formation of the Earth remains an epoch with mysterious puzzles extending to our still incomplete understanding of the planet's potential origin and bulk composition. Direct confirmation of the Earth's internal heat engine was accomplished by the successful observation of geoneutrinos originating from uranium (U) and thorium (Th) progenies, manifestations of the planet's natural radioactivity dominated by potassium (40K) and the decay chains of uranium (238U) and thorium (232Th). This radiogenic energy output is critical to planetary dynamics and must be accurately measured for a complete understanding of the overall heat budget and thermal history of the Earth. Detecting geoneutrinos remains the only direct probe to do so and constitutes a challenging objective in modern neutrino physics. In particular, the intriguing potassium geoneutrinos have never been observed and thus far have been considered impractical to measure. We propose here a novel approach for potassium geoneutrino detection using the unique antimatter signature of antineutrinos to reduce the otherwise overwhelming backgrounds to observing this rarest signal. The proposed detection framework relies on the innovative LiquidO detection technique to enable positron (e+) identification and antineutrino interactions with ideal isotope targets identified here for the first time. We also provide the complete experimental methodology to yield the first potassium geoneutrino discovery.