High Energy Neutrino Physics with Liquid Scintillation Detectors

Understand

Large liquid scintillation detectors have been generally dedicated to low energy neutrino measurements, in the MeV energy region (as for example, KamLAND and Borexino).

• Herein we describe the potential employment of large detectors (>1 kiloton) for studies of higher energy neutrinos interactions, from the cosmic rays and as a long baseline neutrino detector.
• Generally when people have considered large new instruments such as Hanohano and LENA, they have abandoned the possibility of doing useful measurements with higher energy neutrino interactions since these produce enough light to illuminate every photomultiplier tube, and the scintillation light is isotropic.
• Here we take into account Fermat's principle, which tells us that indeed the first light to reach the PMTs will be on or near the lightcone, the "Fermat surface", and that directional track information is available.