Neutrinos emitted in the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen (CNO) fusion cycle in the Sun are a sub-dominant, yet crucial component of solar neutrinos whose flux has not been measured yet. The Borexino ...experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy) has a unique opportunity to detect them directly thanks to the detector’s radiopurity and the precise understanding of the detector backgrounds. We discuss the sensitivity of Borexino to CNO neutrinos, which is based on the strategies we adopted to constrain the rates of the two most relevant background sources,
pep
neutrinos from the solar
pp
-chain and
210
Bi beta decays originating in the intrinsic contamination of the liquid scintillator with
210
Pb. Assuming the CNO flux predicted by the high-metallicity Standard Solar Model and an exposure of 1000 days
×
71.3 t, Borexino has a median sensitivity to CNO neutrino higher than 3
σ
. With the same hypothesis the expected experimental uncertainty on the CNO neutrino flux is 23%, provided the uncertainty on the independent estimate of the
210
Bi
interaction rate is 1.5
cpd
/
100
ton
. Finally, we evaluated the expected uncertainty of the C and N abundances and the expected discrimination significance between the high and low metallicity Standard Solar Models (HZ and LZ) with future more precise measurement of the CNO solar neutrino flux.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
It has been shown previously (Sotnikov et al., ) that mice selectively inbred for high anxiety‐related behavior (HAB) vs. low anxiety‐related behavior in the elevated plus maze differentially respond ...to trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a synthetic fox fecal odor. However, less is known about whether environmental factors can rescue these extreme phenotypes. Here, we found that an enriched environment (EE) provided during early adolescence induced anxiolytic effects in HAB (HAB‐EE) mice, rescuing their strong avoidance behavior induced by TMT. In a series of experiments, the contribution of maternal, juvenile and adolescent behavior to the anxiolytic effects elicited by EE was investigated. At the molecular level, using c‐fos expression mapping, we found that the activity of the medial and basolateral amygdala was significantly reduced in HAB‐EE mice after TMT exposure. We further analysed the expression of Crhr1, as its amount in the amygdala has been reported to be important for the regulation of anxiety‐related behavior after EE. Indeed, in situ hybridisation indicated significantly decreased Crhr1 expression in the basolateral and central amygdala of HAB‐EE mice. To further test the involvement of Crhr1 in TMT‐induced avoidance, we exposed conditional glutamatergic‐specific Crhr1‐knockout mice to the odor. The behavioral response of Crhr1‐knockout mice mimicked that of HAB‐EE mice, and c‐fos expression in the amygdala after TMT exposure was significantly lower compared with controls, thereby further supporting a critical involvement of Crhr1 in environmentally‐induced anxiolysis. Altogether, our results indicate that EE can rescue strong avoidance of TMT by HAB mice with Crhr1 expression in the amygdala being critically involved.
High anxiety‐related behavior mice housed in enriched environment displayed reduced TMT avoidance, which is potentially mediated via decreased amygdala activity as indicated by lower c‐fos expression. Lower Crhr1 expression in the amygdala of enriched mice is likely to be critically involved in this phenomenon. Indeed, Crhr1 glutamatergic‐specific knock‐out mice showed decreased TMT avoidance and c‐fos expression in the amygdala compared to wild type.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Borexino is a liquid scintillation detector located deep underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS, Italy). Thanks to the unmatched radio purity of the scintillator, and to the ...well understood detector response at low energy, a new limit on the stability of the electron for decay into a neutrino and a single monoenergetic photon was obtained. This new bound, τ≥6.6×10^{28} yr at 90% C.L., is 2 orders of magnitude better than the previous limit.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
A search for the solar neutrino effective magnetic moment has been performed using data from 1291.5 days exposure during the second phase of the Borexino experiment. No significant deviations from ...the expected shape of the electron recoil spectrum from solar neutrinos have been found, and a new upper limit on the effective neutrino magnetic moment of μνeff<2.8×10−11 μB at 90% C.L. has been set using constraints on the sum of the solar neutrino fluxes implied by the radiochemical gallium experiments. Using the limit for the effective neutrino moment, new limits for the magnetic moments of the neutrino flavor states, and for the elements of the neutrino magnetic moments matrix for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos, are derived.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
Borexino could efficiently distinguish between α and β radiation in its liquid scintillator by the characteristic time profile of its scintillation pulse. This α / β discrimination, first ...demonstrated on the ton scale in the counting test facility prototype, was used throughout the lifetime of the experiment between 2007 and 2021. With this method, the α events are identified and subtracted from the solar neutrino events similar to β . This is particularly important in liquid scintillators, as the α scintillation is strongly quenched. In Borexino, the prominent Po 210 decay peak was a background in the energy range of electrons scattered from Be 7 solar neutrinos. Optimal α / β discrimination was achieved with a , with a higher ability to leverage the timing information of the scintillation photons detected by the photomultiplier tubes. An event-by-event, high efficiency, stable, and uniform pulse shape discrimination was essential in characterizing the spatial distribution of background in the detector. This benefited most Borexino measurements, including solar neutrinos in the p p chain and the first direct observation of the CNO cycle in the Sun. This paper presents key milestones in α / β discrimination in Borexino as a term of comparison for current and future large liquid scintillator detectors. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
This paper presents the results of a comparative study of rock samples from depth intervals of 1705–1728 m of Semilukian–Mendymian (domanik) deposits of the Berezovskaya area and 1379–1394 m of ...carbonate (domanikoid) deposits of the Dankovian–Lebedyanian horizon of the Zelenogorskaya area of the Romashkino oilfield. It has been shown that rocks with different mineral compositions differ in the content and composition of organic matter (OM), including kerogen, and its resistance to thermal impacts. The yield of extracts from the rocks and the differences in their group, structural-group, and hydrocarbon-group compositions have been determined. According to the molecular-mass distribution of normal and isoprenoid alkanes, the extracts from the rocks are oils of types A
1
and A
2
. Peculiarities in the distribution of higher biomarkers have been revealed, indicating that the hydrocarbons of the examined samples of domanik and domanikoid rocks are genetically uniform in nature, but differ in the geochemical environment of the transformation of the original OM and, possibly, in the effect of migration processes.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
We present new constraints on sub-GeV dark-matter particles scattering off electrons based on 6780.0 kg d of data collected with the DarkSide-50 dual-phase argon time projection chamber. This ...analysis uses electroluminescence signals due to ionized electrons extracted from the liquid argon target. The detector has a very high trigger probability for these signals, allowing for an analysis threshold of three extracted electrons, or approximately 0.05 keVee. We calculate the expected recoil spectra for dark matter-electron scattering in argon and, under the assumption of momentum-independent scattering, improve upon existing limits from XENON10 for dark-matter particles with masses between 30 and 100 MeV/c^{2}.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
The search for neutrino events in correlation with gravitational wave (GW) events for three observing runs (O1, O2 and O3) from 09/2015 to 03/2020 has been performed using the Borexino data-set of ...the same period. We have searched for signals of neutrino-electron scattering and inverse beta-decay (IBD) within a time window of Formula omitted s centered at the detection moment of a particular GW event. The search was done with three visible energy thresholds of 0.25, 0.8 and 3.0 MeV. Two types of incoming neutrino spectra were considered: the mono-energetic line and the supernova-like spectrum. GW candidates originated by merging binaries of black holes (BHBH), neutron stars (NSNS) and neutron star and black hole (NSBH) were analyzed separately. Additionally, the subset of most intensive BHBH mergers at closer distances and with larger radiative mass than the rest was considered. In total, follow-ups of 74 out of 93 gravitational waves reported in the GWTC-3 catalog were analyzed and no statistically significant excess over the background was observed. As a result, the strongest upper limits on GW-associated neutrino and antineutrino fluences for all flavors ( Formula omitted) at the level Formula omitted have been obtained in the 0.5-5 MeV neutrino energy range.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Core material taken over a section of the Bavly multipay field of Tatarstan (Russia), and extracts from it have been studied by thermal analysis, IR and EPR spectroscopy, and gas-liquid ...chromatography. The trends of changes in the amount and fractional and hydrocarbon-group compositions of residual oil and oil components irreversibly adsorbed on the rock depending on the age of deposition have been revealed. In rocks from the Trans-Volgian and Dankovian–Lebedyanian horizons attributed to domanik deposits, the organic matter content has been determined with an estimate of the proportion of bitumoid and kerogen in it, and the peculiarities of their fractional and hydrocarbon-group compositions have been revealed.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
We present the results of analytical studies and numerical simulations of a plasma-dielectric wakefield accelerator (PDWFA). The plasma-dielectric structure under investigation is a dielectric-lined ...circular waveguide that has a transport channel filled with isotropic plasma. In the linear theory approximation (overdense plasma) the total field is represented as a sum of the plasma wave, the eigenwaves of the dielectric waveguide, and the quasistatic field of the bunch. It is shown that at a certain plasma density the superposition of the plasma wave and the dielectric waves allows the acceleration of the witness bunch by the field of the dielectric wave together with simultaneous focusing by the plasma wave. For the overdense plasma regime the results of analytical investigations coincide well with results of particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Also, we carried out a PIC simulation of the underdense (blowout) regime of wakefield excitation in the unit. In this regime a focusing is provided by ions remaining in the drift channel after pushing out from it plasma electrons.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK