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First Evidence of Solar Neutrino Interactions on C13

M. Abreu1,2, A. Allega3, M. R. Anderson3, S. Andringa1, D. M. Asner4, D. J. Auty5, A. Bacon6, T. Baltazar1,2, F. Barão1,2 et al. (SNO+ Collaboration)

F. Barão1,2, N. Barros25,26, R. Bayes3, E. W. Beier6, A. Bialek4,9, S. D. Biller10, E. Caden4,9, M. Chen3, S. Cheng3, B. Cleveland4,9, D. Cookman11, J. Corning3, S. DeGraw10, R. Dehghani3, J. Deloye9, M. M. Depatie3, F. Di Lodovico11, C. Dima12, J. Dittmer13, K. H. Dixon11, M. S. Esmaeilian5, E. Falk12, N. Fatemighomi4, R. Ford4,9, S. Gadamsetty16, A. Gaur5, O. I. González-Reina14, D. Gooding15, C. Grant15, J. Grove3, S. Hall4, A. L. Hallin5, D. Hallman9, M. R. Hebert16,17, W. J. Heintzelman6, R. L. Helmer18, C. Hewitt10, B. Hreljac3, P. Huang10, R. Hunt-Stokes10, A. S. Inácio10, C. J. Jillings4,9, S. Kaluzienski3, T. Kaptanoglu16,17, J. Kladnik1,20, J. R. Klein6, L. L. Kormos19, B. Krar3, C. Kraus9, C. B. Krauss5, T. Kroupová6, C. Lake9, L. Lebanowski16,17, C. Lefebvre3, V. Lozza1,20, M. Luo6, S. Maguire4, A. Maio1,20, S. Manecki4,3, J. Maneira1,20, R. D. Martin3, N. McCauley21, A. B. McDonald3, G. Milton10,*, D. Morris3, M. Mubasher5, S. Naugle6, L. J. Nolan9, H. M. O’Keeffe19, G. D. Orebi Gann16,17, S. Ouyang22,23, J. Page3, S. Pal3, K. Paleshi9, W. Parker10, L. J. Pickard16,17, B. Quenallata7,8, P. Ravi9, A. Reichold10, S. Riccetto3, J. Rose21, R. Rosero24, J. Shen6, J. Simms10, P. Skensved3, M. Smiley16,17, R. Tafirout18, B. Tam10, J. Tseng10, E. Vázquez-Jáuregui14, C. J. Virtue9, F. Wang22,23, M. Ward3, J. D. Wilson5, J. R. Wilson11, A. Wright3, S. Yang5, Z. Ye6, M. Yeh24, S. Yu3, Y. Zhang22,23, K. Zuber13, and A. Zummo6 (SNO+ Collaboration)

  • 1Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), Avenida Professor Gama Pinto, 2, 1649-003, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Departamento de Física, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 3Queen’s University, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
  • 4SNOLAB, Creighton Mine No. 9, 1039 Regional Road 24, Sudbury, Ontario P3Y 1N2, Canada
  • 5University of Alberta, Department of Physics, 4-181 CCIS, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada
  • 6University of Pennsylvania, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396, USA
  • 7Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Rua Larga, 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 8Universidade de Coimbra, Departamento de Física (FCTUC), 3004-516, Coimbra, Portugal
  • 9Laurentian University, School of Natural Sciences, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada
  • 10University of Oxford, The Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
  • 11King’s College London, Department of Physics, Strand Building, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 12University of Sussex, Physics and Astronomy, Pevensey II, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom
  • 13Technische Universität Dresden, Institut für Kern und Teilchenphysik, Zellescher Weg 19, Dresden, 01069, Germany
  • 14Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Instituto de Física, Apartado Postal 20-364, México D.F., 01000, México
  • 15Boston University, Department of Physics, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
  • 16University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, California 94720, Berkeley, USA
  • 17Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720-8153, USA
  • 18TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A3, Canada
  • 19Lancaster University, Physics Department, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, United Kingdom
  • 20Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências (FCUL), Departamento de Física, Campo Grande, Edifício C8, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 21University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool, L69 3BX, United Kingdom
  • 22Research Center for Particle Science and Technology, Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Science, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China
  • 23Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation of Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China
  • 24Brookhaven National Laboratory, P.O. Box 5000, Upton, New York 11973-500, USA
  • 25Departamento de Física, Escola de Ciências, Universidade do Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
  • 26LIP—Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Escola de Ciências, Campus de Gualtar, Universidade do Minho, 4701-057 Braga, Portugal

  • *Contact author: gullivermilton@gmail.com
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 241803 – Published 10 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1frl-95gj

Abstract

The SNO+ Collaboration reports the first evidence of B8 solar neutrinos interacting on C13 nuclei. The charged current interaction proceeds through C13+νe→13N+e− which is followed, with a 10 minute half life, by N13→13C+e++νe. The detection strategy is based on the delayed coincidence between the electron and the positron. Evidence for the charged current signal is presented with a significance of 4.2σ. Using the natural abundance of C13 present in the scintillator, 5.7 metric tons of C13 over 231 days of data were used in this analysis. The 5.6−2.3+3.0 observed events in the data set are consistent with the expectation of 4.7−1.3+0.6 events. This result is the second real-time measurement of CC interactions of B8 neutrinos with nuclei and constitutes the lowest energy observation of neutrino interactions on C13 generally. This enables the first direct measurement of the CC νe reaction to the ground state of N13, yielding an average cross section of (16.1−6.7+8.5(stat.)−2.7+1.6(syst.))×10−43  cm2 over the relevant B8 solar neutrino energies.

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References (21)

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 241803– Published 10 December, 2025
  • Received 28 August 2025
  • Revised 22 October 2025
  • Accepted 27 October 2025
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