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Main Authors: Sun, Haozhe, Wang, Zhe, Chen, Shaomin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.00808
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author Sun, Haozhe
Wang, Zhe
Chen, Shaomin
author_facet Sun, Haozhe
Wang, Zhe
Chen, Shaomin
contents Geoneutrinos, the electron (anti)neutrinos generated in decays or decay chains of the radioactive elements within the Earth, primarily K-40, U-238, and Th-232, serve as a unique probe for the inner chemical composition of the Earth. A directional geoneutrino detection method with a Cherenkov liquid scintillator is investigated in this work. The neutrino-electron elastic scattering in the scintillator is employed to detect geoneutrinos. The direction reconstruction resolution for neutrinos is studied based on previous measurements and simulations. The intrinsic neutrino background from the Sun is suppressed with an optimized solar angle cut. The 3 sigma sensitivity to discover the potassium neutrinos is 2.8 kiloton-years. The potential to reach a non-uniform geoneutrino image with the Earth's large-scale structures is also studied. The required exposure is 10.6 kiloton-years to reject a uniform geoneutrino distribution by 3 sigma.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_00808
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Potassium-40 geoneutrinos detection and the Earth's large-scale structures imaging by directional geoneutrino detection
Sun, Haozhe
Wang, Zhe
Chen, Shaomin
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Instrumentation and Detectors
Geoneutrinos, the electron (anti)neutrinos generated in decays or decay chains of the radioactive elements within the Earth, primarily K-40, U-238, and Th-232, serve as a unique probe for the inner chemical composition of the Earth. A directional geoneutrino detection method with a Cherenkov liquid scintillator is investigated in this work. The neutrino-electron elastic scattering in the scintillator is employed to detect geoneutrinos. The direction reconstruction resolution for neutrinos is studied based on previous measurements and simulations. The intrinsic neutrino background from the Sun is suppressed with an optimized solar angle cut. The 3 sigma sensitivity to discover the potassium neutrinos is 2.8 kiloton-years. The potential to reach a non-uniform geoneutrino image with the Earth's large-scale structures is also studied. The required exposure is 10.6 kiloton-years to reject a uniform geoneutrino distribution by 3 sigma.
title Potassium-40 geoneutrinos detection and the Earth's large-scale structures imaging by directional geoneutrino detection
topic High Energy Physics - Experiment
Instrumentation and Detectors
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.00808