Capability of detecting low energy events in JUNO Central Detector

Abstract

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is an experimental project designed to determine the neutrino mass ordering and probe the fundamental properties of the neutrino oscillations. The JUNO central detector is a spherical liquid scintillator detector with a diameter of 35.4 m and equipped with approximately 18,000 20-inch PMTs. A trigger threshold of 0.5 MeV can be easily achieved by using a common multiplicity trigger and can meet the requirements for measuring neutrino mass ordering. However, it is essential to further reduce the trigger threshold for detecting solar neutrinos and supernova neutrinos. A sophisticated trigger scheme is proposed to achieve a low energy threshold by reducing the level of low energy radioactivity and dark noise coincidence. With the new trigger scheme, the events rate of the central detector from different types of sources have been carefully studied by using a detailed detector simulation. It shows that the trigger threshold can be reduced to 0.2 MeV, or even 0.1 MeV, if the concentration of $^{14}$C in liquid scintillator can be well controlled.