https://phys.org/news/2022-03-borexino- ... ithic.html
by Ingrid Fadelli , Phys.org
Borexino is a large-scale particle physics experiment that collected data until October 2021. Its key mission was to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos using the Borexino detector, the world's most radio-pure liquid scintillator calorimeter, located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso near Aquila, in Italy.
The Borexino Collaboration, the research team conducting the experiment, recently gathered the first experimental measurement of sub-MeV solar neutrinos using a scintillation detector. This measurement, presented in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could open new possibilities for the hybrid reconstruction of particle physics events using Cherenkov and scintillation signatures simultaneously.
"The main idea behind this work was to gather experimental proof that it is possible to use the information given by the Cherenkov photons even in a monolithic scintillation detector," Johann Martyn, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org.
Currently, there are two main types of detectors for studying neutrinos, namely water Cherenkov detectors, such as the Super-Kamiokande (SNO) detector and liquid scintillator detectors, such as the Borexino detector. In water Cherenkov detectors, neutrinos scatter off electrons in the medium. If these electrons are moving faster than the speed of light in the water, they produce Cherenkov radiation.