Exploring the hidden interior of the Earth with directional neutrino measurements.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28691700.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms15989 and PMC identifier 5508127.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Roughly 40% of the Earth's total heat flow is powered by radioactive decays in the crust and mantle. Geo-neutrinos produced by these decays provide important clues about the origin, formation and thermal evolution of our planet, as well as the composition of its interior. Previous measurements of geo-neutrinos have all relied on the detection of inverse beta decay reactions, which are insensitive to the contribution from potassium and do not provide model-independent information about the spatial distribution of geo-neutrino sources within the Earth. Here we present a method for measuring previously unresolved components of Earth's radiogenic heating using neutrino-electron elastic scattering and low-background, direction-sensitive tracking detectors. We calculate the exposures needed to probe various contributions to the total geo-neutrino flux, specifically those associated to potassium, the mantle and the core. The measurements proposed here chart a course for pioneering exploration of the veiled inner workings of the Earth.