Development of the prototype of a large-volume liquid scintillation detector with photosensors based on silicon photomultiplayers

Abstract

At present, the Institute for Nuclear Research of RAS carries out work on the creation of a large-volume scintillation detector at the Baksan Neutrino Observatory (BNO) to register natural low-energy neutrino fluxes, including from astrophysical sources. One of the prototypes of such a detector being developed at the BNO is an acrylic sphere with a diameter of 500 mm filled with a liquid scintillator. Matrices of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) as photosensors are used to measure the total light output from the interaction of particles in the scintillator and to obtain images of such events. This approach makes it possible to separate useful events from background ones and thereby to lower the background when monitoring Supernova explosions in our Galaxy. The paper describes the prototype of a large-volume detector and presents the measurement results. The Multifaceted Universe: Theory Observations