Pep neutrino detection by a lithium detector as a direct way to seek oscillations of solar neutrinos

Abstract

The high sensitivity of a lithium detector to pep and 7Be neutrinos renders a radiochemical lithium detector a powerful tool for seeking solar-neutrino oscillations. The first phase of the lithium experiment with an apparatus involving 10 t of metallic lithium will allow collecting data within 1 yr of measurements to provide very definite information about a MSW SMA solution. The second phase with ten modules 10 t each will measure the semiannual variations of the signal, whereby the contributions of pep and 7Be lines will be weighted, which will give “smoking-gun” evidence for the “just-so” solution for large mixing angles and Δm2 about 10−10–10−9 eV2. If both regions are not confirmed, the results of the lithium detector can be interpreted in favor of the MSW LMA solution.