Physics Potential of a Few Kiloton Scale Neutrino Detector at a Deep Underground Lab in Korea

TL;DR

This paper explores the physics potential of a 2.26-kiloton liquid scintillator neutrino detector at Yemilab, Korea, emphasizing its capabilities for solar neutrino measurements and beyond Standard Model physics searches.

Contribution

It introduces a large, ultra-pure liquid scintillator detector concept at Yemilab and evaluates its potential for neutrino physics and new physics searches.

Findings

Potential for precise solar neutrino measurements.

Capability to explore beyond Standard Model physics.

Feasibility of a large underground neutrino detector in Korea.

Abstract

The demand for underground labs for neutrino and rare event search experiments has been increasing over the last few decades. Yemilab, constructed in October 2022, is the first deep ($\sim$1~km) underground lab dedicated to science in Korea, where a large cylindrical cavern (D: 20~m, H: 20~m) was excavated in addition to the main caverns and halls. The large cavern could be utilized for a low background neutrino experiment by a liquid scintillator-based detector (LSC) where a 2.26 kiloton LS target would be filled. It's timely to have such a large but ultra-pure LS detector after the shutdown of the Borexino experiment so that solar neutrinos can be measured much more precisely. Interesting BSM physics searches can be also pursued with this detector when it's combined with an electron linac, a proton cyclotron (IsoDAR source), or a radioactive source. This article discusses the concept of a candidate detector and the physics potential of a large liquid scintillator detector.