Beta decay of ^40Ti and the efficiency of the ICARUS ^40Ar neutrino detector
Abstract
The proposed large-volume liquid-argon detector, ICARUS, (ICARUS Collaboration, Proposal, ICARUS II) could play a decisive role in understanding the solar neutrino problem because it would detect neutrinos through both neutral and charged current interactions. The neutral-current efficiency of ICARUS can be accurately calculated using electro-weak theory but the charged-current efficiency depends on the matrix elements for neutrino-capture transitions on ^40Ar to excited states of ^40K. A recent shell-model calculation (Ormand et. al.) Phys. Lett B 345, 343(1995) predicts that about 70% of the capture rate is expected from the model-dependent Gamow-Teller transition strengths. An empirical calibration of the ^40Ar(ν_e,e)^40K^* transition strengths is therefore essential. We have performed an experiment at GANIL where we studied the β^+ decays of ^40Ti (isospin mirror of ^40Ar) to calibrate the charged-current efficiency of the ICARUS detector. Data will be presented.
- Publication:
-
APS April Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- April 1997
- Bibcode:
- 1997APS..APR.J1009B