Speaker
Description
Future ktonne-scale, scintillation-based neutrino detectors, such as THEIA, plan to exploit new
and yet to be developed technologies to simultaneously measure Cherenkov and scintillation
signals in order to provide a rich and broad physics program. These hybrid detectors will be
based on fast timing photodetectors, novel target materials, such as water-based liquid
scintillator (WbLS), and spectral sorting. Besides a brief overview on THEIA’s program for
low energy astroparticle and particle physics this talk focuses on a currently realized
demonstrator experiment, called EOS. This novel detector with an approximately 4-tonne target
fiducial volume is under construction at the UC Berkeley and LBNL (Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory). The detector will provide a test-bed for these emerging technologies
required for hybrid Cherenkov/Scintillation detectors. Furthermore, EOS will deploy
calibration sources to verify the optical models of WbLS and other liquid scintillators with slow
light emission, to enable an extrapolation to ktonne-scale detectors. This input will support the
development of advanced techniques for reconstructing event energy, position, and direction in
hybrid detectors significantly. After achieving these goals, EOS can be moved near a nuclear
reactor or in a particle test-beam to demonstrate neutrino event reconstruction or detailed event
characterization within these novel detectors.
