https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20159504041
EGADS approaching GADZOOKS!
University of Tokyo, Japan
a e-mail: martillu@suketto.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Published online: 29 May 2015
The detection of the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) for the very first time and its difficulty due to the large irreducible backgrounds originally motivated the idea of adding gadolinium (Gd) into the ultra-pure water of Super-Kamiokande (SK). Since the main mode to detect the DSNB is through inverse beta decay, these backgrounds could be greatly reduced if neutrons could be detected with high efficiency. Today, this is not currently possible. Adding Gd was proposed by GADZOOKS! about 10 years ago and since then much research has been done towards achieving this goal. Given the many advantages that adding Gd means, the EGADS project was set in 2009 to Evaluate the Gadolinium’s Action on Detector Systems. Soon we will be able to demonstrate that this technique is possible, feasible at reasonable costs and safe making possible the advantages of reducing backgrounds in several analyses at SK or in future experiments like Hyper-Kamiokande.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2015
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