<p>The Čerenkov detector has a distinct advantage in constructing the reaction vertex and incident direction of energetic particles, thereby enabling the identification of emission sources. A novel approach is proposed to measure neutrino sources by employing a modular photomultiplier tube (PMT) array, utilizing clean and transparent deep seawater as the sensitive medium. The feasibility of detecting solar neutrinos was demonstrated through extensive simulations using the Geant4 package. These simulations incorporate the production and transport of Čerenkov photons generated by electron scattering, with the Hough transform method applied to enhance the accuracy of the vertex and direction reconstruction, particularly in the presence of noisy or incomplete data. The dominant background from <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$\gamma$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mi>γ</mi> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation>-radiation due to <InlineEquation ID="IEq2"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">${^{40}\text {K}}$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mrow> <mmultiscripts> <mrow /> <mrow /> <mn>40</mn> </mmultiscripts> <mtext>K</mtext> </mrow> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation> in seawater can be suppressed by a factor of <InlineEquation ID="IEq3"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$10^7$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <msup> <mn>10</mn> <mn>7</mn> </msup> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation> by introducing a threshold on the number of triggered PMTs. The total reconstruction efficiency increases with the incident energy, achieving 25% for 6 MeV neutrinos and 52% for 10 MeV neutrinos. For source localization, a sufficient number of neutrino events must be detected, depending on the background intensity above the threshold. The Hough transform was also applied to manage high noise levels during this process. The simulation results confirm the feasibility of detecting solar neutrinos using deep seawater, paving the way for future underwater neutrino detection systems.</p>

Simulation studies of the directivity in detection of solar neutrinos using deep seawater

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发表日期：

2026年4月11日

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Yan Zhou,
Da-Wei Si,
Sheng Xiao,
Jun-Huai Xu,
Yu-Hao Qin,
Xin Chen,
Zhi-Gang Xiao

摘要

The Čerenkov detector has a distinct advantage in constructing the reaction vertex and incident direction of energetic particles, thereby enabling the identification of emission sources. A novel approach is proposed to measure neutrino sources by employing a modular photomultiplier tube (PMT) array, utilizing clean and transparent deep seawater as the sensitive medium. The feasibility of detecting solar neutrinos was demonstrated through extensive simulations using the Geant4 package. These simulations incorporate the production and transport of Čerenkov photons generated by electron scattering, with the Hough transform method applied to enhance the accuracy of the vertex and direction reconstruction, particularly in the presence of noisy or incomplete data. The dominant background from $\gamma$ $γ$ -radiation due to ${^{40}\text {K}}$ $^{40} K$ in seawater can be suppressed by a factor of $10^7$ $10^{7}$ by introducing a threshold on the number of triggered PMTs. The total reconstruction efficiency increases with the incident energy, achieving 25% for 6 MeV neutrinos and 52% for 10 MeV neutrinos. For source localization, a sufficient number of neutrino events must be detected, depending on the background intensity above the threshold. The Hough transform was also applied to manage high noise levels during this process. The simulation results confirm the feasibility of detecting solar neutrinos using deep seawater, paving the way for future underwater neutrino detection systems.