Study of Double Beta Decay with High Light-Concentrating Liquid Scintillator Detector

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23684012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Particle/Nuclear/Cosmic ray/Astro physics
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: SHIMIZU Itaru 東北大学, ニュートリノ科学研究センター, 助教 (10400227)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: ニュートリノ / 素粒子実験 / 実験核物理

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The development of devices highly sensitive to neutrino-less double-beta decays using isotopically enriched xenon was performed. The specially-shaped light-concentrating mirrors for the large volume liquid scintillator detector (KamLAND) were produced from aluminum metalizing PET film, and the increase of light collection efficiencies for scintillation light coming from distant points was confirmed. In addition, the purification by distillation and adsorption to enhance the optical performance of linear-alkylbenzene-based liquid scintillator was performed, resulting in better performance than the original liquid scintillator in use. The present study allows us to suggest a specific plan to test the inverted hierarchy neutrino masses by the neutrino-less double-beta decay experiment.

Free Research Field

数物系科学