Recent Borexino results and prospects for the near future

¹ AstroParticule et Cosmologie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/IRFU, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
² Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Russia
³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi e INFN, Genova 16146, Italy
⁴ Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
⁶ M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30059 Krakow, Poland
⁷ Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research, 06380 Kiev, Ukraine
⁸ Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, 117218 Moscow, Russia
⁹ Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics, Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
¹⁰ NRC Kurchatov Institute, 123182 Moscow, Russia
¹¹ National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), 115409 Moscow, Russia
¹² INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010 Assergi, (AQ), Italy
¹³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi e INFN, 20133 Milano, Italy
¹⁴ Dipartimento di Chimica, Università e INFN, 06123 Perugia, Italy
¹⁵ St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute NRC Kurchatov Institute, 188350 Gatchina, Russia
¹⁶ Physics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
¹⁷ Chemical Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
¹⁸ Physics Department, Queen’s University, Kingston ON K7L 3N6, Canada
¹⁹ Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions and Physics Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
²⁰ Physics Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
²¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra Università degli Studi di Ferrara e INFN, Via Saragat 1-44122, Ferrara, Italy
²² Physik-Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany
²³ Lomonosov Moscow State University Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, 119234 Moscow, Russia
²⁴ Gran Sasso Science Institute (INFN), 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
²⁵ Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204 USA
²⁶ Department of Physics, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
²⁷ Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
²⁸ Institute of Physics and Excellence Cluster PRISMA, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany

^a e-mail: davide.dangelo@mi.infn.it
^b Now at RWTH Aachen University, 52074, Aachen, Germany and Forschungzentrum Jülich IKP-2, 52428 Jülich, Germany

Published online: 4 November 2016

Abstract

The Borexino experiment located in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, is an organic liquid scintillator detector conceived for the real time spectroscopy of low energy solar neutrinos. The phase-I of the data taking campaign (2007 – 2010) has allowed the first independent measurements of ⁷Be and pep solar neutrino fluxes as well as the first measurement of anti-neutrinos from the Earth. After a purification of the scintillator, Borexino is now in phase-II since 2011. Thanks to the unprecedented background levels, we have performed the first flux measurement of neutrinos from the fundamental pp reaction which powers the Sun. We review this breakthrough result and other recent results, including the latest review of our terrestrial neutrino analysis. We also discuss the upcoming measurements on middle energy solar neutrino spectral components (pep, CNO) and the new project SOX devoted to the study of sterile neutrinos via the use of a neutrino source placed in close proximity of the detector’s active material.