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Determination of the age of the earth from Kamland measurement of geo-neutrinos

Subhendra Mohanty

hep-pharXiv:hep-ph/0302060

Abstract

The low energy component of the antineutrino spectrum observed in the recent Kamland experiment has significant contribution from the radioactive decay of 238U and 232Th in the crust and mantle of the earth. By taking the ratio of the antineutrino events obeserved in two different energy ranges we can determine the present value [Th/U] independent of the U,Th distribution in the earth. Comparing with the r-process initial value of [Th/U]0 we determine the age of the earth as a function of Δm2 and Sin2 2 θ. We find that the age of the earth determined from KamLAND data matches the age of solar system (4.5 Gyrs from meteorites) for the LMA-I solution. For the LMA-II solution the age of the earth does not match the solar system age at 90 % C.L.

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