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Solar Neutrinos

There are currently four solar neutrino experiments [16]. The Kamiokande water Cerenkov experiment [17] can observe only the highest energy neutrinos. The Homestake [18] radiochemical chlorine experiment also has its largest sensitivity at the highest energies, but has some sensitivity to the lower energy parts of the spectrum and to the higher line. The two radiochemical gallium experiments, SAGE [19] and GALLEX [20], are sensitive to the low energy pp neutrinos, as well as to the higher energy neutrinos. The GALLEX experiment has recently demonstrated its detection efficiency using an intense Cr source, for which they observed times the expected numbers of counts [21].

The results of the experiments are compared with the predictions of two standard solar models [22], that of Bahcall and Pinsonneault (BP) [23] and that of Turck-Chieze and Lopes (TCL) [24], in Table 1. It is seen that all of the observed rates are well below the theoretical predictions.

  
Table: Predictions of the BP and TCL standard solar models for the Kamiokande, Homestake, and Gallium experiments compared with the experimental rates. The Kamiokande flux is in units of , while the Homestake and gallium rates are in SNU ( interactions per atom per s). The experimental rates relative to the theoretical predictions are shown in the last two columns, where the first uncertainty is experimental and the second is theoretical. All uncertainties are 1 .

The solar neutrino problem has two aspects. The older and less significant is that all of the experiments are below the SSM predictions. This was never a serious concern for the Kamiokande and Homestake experiments individually, which are mainly sensitive to the high energy neutrinos, which are the least reliably predicted. However, the predictions for the gallium experiments are harder to modify due to the constraint of the solar luminosity, and the statistics on the gallium experiments are now good enough that the deficit observed there is hard to account for.

A second and more serious problem is that the Kamiokande rate indicates less suppression than the Homestake rate. The Homestake experiment has a lower energy threshold, and the lower observed rate suggests that there is more suppression in the middle of the spectrum (the line and the lower energy part of the spectrum) than at higher energies [25]-[31]. This is very hard to account for by astrophysical or nuclear physics mechanisms: the is made from so any suppression of \ should be accompanied by at least as much suppression of . Furthermore, all known mechanisms for distorting the decay spectrum are negligible [32].





next up previous
Next: Astrophysical Solutions Up: Implications of Neutrino Mass Previous: Laboratory Limits




Mon Nov 27 19:37:58 EST 1995