Dresden 2013 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 103: Niederenergie-Neutrinophysik 5

T 103.8: Talk

Thursday, March 7, 2013, 18:40–18:55, WIL-A317

A Scandium Calibration Source for the SNO+ Experiment — •Axel Boeltzig, Nuno Barros, Felix Krüger, Belina von Krosigk, Valentina Lozza, Laura Neumann, Johannes Petzoldt, Arnd Sörensen, and Kai Zuber — TU Dresden, Germany

The SNO+ experiment is the successor of SNO (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory), for which the detector will be filled with liquid scintillator. Located 2 km underground (equivalent to a shielding of about 6 km of water) in a mine near Sudbury, Canada, SNO+ will be a low-background experiment studying different aspects of neutrinos.

The SNO+ detector calibration is scheduled to begin in mid-2013 with a water-filled detector and in 2014 filled with liquid scintillator. One of the sources designated for this calibration will use the γ rays following the beta decay of ⁴⁸Sc. The sum of their energies is 3.333 MeV for the main decay branch, which is close to Q=3.371 MeV for the neutrino-less double beta decay of ¹⁵⁰Nd that SNO+ plans to investigate.

Due to the ⁴⁸Sc half-life of 43.67 h, the source has to be produced shortly before the calibration via (n,p) reactions on ⁴⁸Ti. Safety, radiopurity and cleanliness are further important issues for its application. The current status of the source development will be presented. This work is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG).