Scintillator phase of the SNO+ experiment

Abstract

The SNO+ experiment is the follow up of the SNO experiment, replacing the heavy water volume with about 780 tons of liquid scintillator (LAB) in order to shift the sensitive threshold to lower energy range. The 6000 m.w.e. natural rock shielding, and the use of ultra- clean materials makes the detector suitable for the detection of pep and CNO solar neutrinos, geo-neutrinos, reactor neutrinos and the possible observation of neutrinos from supernovae. Complementing this program, SNO+ will also search for 150Nd (5.6% abundance) neutrinoless double beta decay, loading the liquid scintillator with 0.1% of natural Neodymium. After a review of the general SNO+ setup, the physics of the solar neutrino phase will be presented.