Solar Neutrinos, SNO and SNOLAB

Abstract

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory has completed operation in its third phase with an array of neutron detectors in 1000 tonnes of heavy water and Cherenkov light detection 2 km underground in INCO’s Creighton mine near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Data from the third phase is now being analyzed. In the first two phases of the project reported previously, the neutral current reaction on deuterium was used to determine the total flux of active neutrinos and the charged current reaction on deuterium provided a measure of the flux and energy spectrum of solar electron neutrinos. The flux of electron neutrinos was found to be only about one third of the total flux, providing clear evidence of neutrino flavour change. The total flux of active neutrinos was found to be in agreement with solar model calculations. The underground laboratory is being expanded to create an international facility known as SNOLAB that will be completed at the end of 2007. Proposed future experiments for the detection of lower energy solar neutrinos, geo‐neutrinos, dark matter and double beta decay are described.