Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun

Publication type:
Journal article
Metadata:
Autoren
  • M Agostini
  • K Altenmueller
  • S Appel
  • V Atroshchenko
  • Z Bagdasarian
  • D Basilico
  • G Bellini
  • J Benziger
  • R Biondi
  • D Bravo
  • B Caccianiga
  • F Calaprice
  • A Caminata
  • P Cavalcante
  • A Chepurnov
  • D D'Angelo
  • S Davini
  • A Derbin
  • A Di Giacinto
  • V Di Marcello
  • XF Ding
  • A Di Ludovico
  • L Di Noto
  • I Drachnev
  • A Formozov
  • D Franco
  • C Galbiati
  • C Ghiano
  • M Giammarchi
  • A Goretti
  • AS Goettel
  • M Gromov
  • D Guffanti
  • Aldo Ianni
  • Andrea Ianni
  • A Jany
  • D Jeschke
  • V Kobychev
  • G Korga
  • S Kumaran
  • M Laubenstein
  • E Litvinovich
  • P Lombardi
  • I Lomskaya
  • L Ludhova
  • G Lukyanchenko
  • L Lukyanchenko
  • I Machulin
  • J Martyn
  • E Meroni
  • M Meyer
  • L Miramonti
  • M Misiaszek
  • V Muratova
  • B Neumair
  • M Nieslony
  • R Nugmanov
  • L Oberauer
  • V Orekhov
  • F Ortica
  • M Pallavicini
  • L Papp
  • L Pelicci
  • O Penek
  • L Pietrofaccia
  • N Pilipenko
  • A Pocar
  • G Raikov
  • MT Ranalli
  • G Ranucci
  • A Razeto
  • A Re
  • M Redchuk
  • A Romani
  • N Rossi
  • S Schoenert
  • D Semenov
  • G Settanta
  • M Skorokhvatov
  • A Singhar
  • O Smirnov
  • A Sotnikov
  • Y Suvorov
  • R Tartaglia
  • G Testera
  • J Thurn
  • E Unzhakov
  • FL Villante
  • A Vishneva
  • RB Vogelaar
  • F von Feilitzsch
  • M Wojcik
  • M Wurm
  • S Zavatarelli
  • K Zuber
  • G Zuzel
Autoren-URL
https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=fis-test-1&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:000603059500011&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
DOI
10.1038/s41586-020-2934-0
eISSN
1476-4687
Externe Identifier
  • Clarivate Analytics Document Solution ID: PL3XR
  • PubMed Identifier: 33239797
ISSN
0028-0836
Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung
7835
Zeitschrift
NATURE
Paginierung
577 - +
Datum der Veröffentlichung
2020
Status
Published
Titel
Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun
Sub types
  • Article
Ausgabe der Zeitschrift
587

Data source: Web of Science (Lite)

Other metadata sources:
DOI
10.1038/s41586-020-2934-0
eISSN
1476-4687
ISSN
0028-0836
Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung
7835
Zeitschrift
Nature
Sprache
en
Online publication date
2020
Paginierung
577 - 582
Datum der Veröffentlichung
2020
Status
Published
Herausgeber
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Herausgeber URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2934-0
Datum der Datenerfassung
2023
Titel
Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun
Ausgabe der Zeitschrift
587

Data source: Crossref

Abstract
For most of their existence, stars are fuelled by the fusion of hydrogen into helium. Fusion proceeds via two processes that are well understood theoretically: the proton-proton (pp) chain and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle<sup>1,2</sup>. Neutrinos that are emitted along such fusion processes in the solar core are the only direct probe of the deep interior of the Sun. A complete spectroscopic study of neutrinos from the pp chain, which produces about 99 per cent of the solar energy, has been performed previously<sup>3</sup>; however, there has been no reported experimental evidence of the CNO cycle. Here we report the direct observation, with a high statistical significance, of neutrinos produced in the CNO cycle in the Sun. This experimental evidence was obtained using the highly radiopure, large-volume, liquid-scintillator detector of Borexino, an experiment located at the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The main experimental challenge was to identify the excess signal-only a few counts per day above the background per 100 tonnes of target-that is attributed to interactions of the CNO neutrinos. Advances in the thermal stabilization of the detector over the last five years enabled us to develop a method to constrain the rate of bismuth-210 contaminating the scintillator. In the CNO cycle, the fusion of hydrogen is catalysed by carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, and so its rate-as well as the flux of emitted CNO neutrinos-depends directly on the abundance of these elements in the solar core. This result therefore paves the way towards a direct measurement of the solar metallicity using CNO neutrinos. Our findings quantify the relative contribution of CNO fusion in the Sun to be of the order of 1 per cent; however, in massive stars, this is the dominant process of energy production. This work provides experimental evidence of the primary mechanism for the stellar conversion of hydrogen into helium in the Universe.
Autoren
  • Borexino Collaboration
DOI
10.1038/s41586-020-2934-0
eISSN
1476-4687
Externe Identifier
  • PubMed Identifier: 33239797
Open access
false
ISSN
0028-0836
Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung
7835
Zeitschrift
Nature
Schlüsselwörter
  • Borexino Collaboration
Sprache
eng
Medium
Print-Electronic
Online publication date
2020
Paginierung
577 - 582
Datum der Veröffentlichung
2020
Status
Published
Datum der Datenerfassung
2020
Titel
Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun.
Sub types
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Journal Article
Ausgabe der Zeitschrift
587

Data source: Europe PubMed Central

Abstract
For most of their existence, stars are fuelled by the fusion of hydrogen into helium. Fusion proceeds via two processes that are well understood theoretically: the proton-proton (pp) chain and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle1,2. Neutrinos that are emitted along such fusion processes in the solar core are the only direct probe of the deep interior of the Sun. A complete spectroscopic study of neutrinos from the pp chain, which produces about 99 per cent of the solar energy, has been performed previously3; however, there has been no reported experimental evidence of the CNO cycle. Here we report the direct observation, with a high statistical significance, of neutrinos produced in the CNO cycle in the Sun. This experimental evidence was obtained using the highly radiopure, large-volume, liquid-scintillator detector of Borexino, an experiment located at the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The main experimental challenge was to identify the excess signal-only a few counts per day above the background per 100 tonnes of target-that is attributed to interactions of the CNO neutrinos. Advances in the thermal stabilization of the detector over the last five years enabled us to develop a method to constrain the rate of bismuth-210 contaminating the scintillator. In the CNO cycle, the fusion of hydrogen is catalysed by carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, and so its rate-as well as the flux of emitted CNO neutrinos-depends directly on the abundance of these elements in the solar core. This result therefore paves the way towards a direct measurement of the solar metallicity using CNO neutrinos. Our findings quantify the relative contribution of CNO fusion in the Sun to be of the order of 1 per cent; however, in massive stars, this is the dominant process of energy production. This work provides experimental evidence of the primary mechanism for the stellar conversion of hydrogen into helium in the Universe.
Date of acceptance
2020
Autoren
  • Borexino Collaboration
Autoren-URL
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33239797
DOI
10.1038/s41586-020-2934-0
eISSN
1476-4687
Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung
7835
Zeitschrift
Nature
Sprache
eng
Country
England
Paginierung
577 - 582
PII
10.1038/s41586-020-2934-0
Datum der Veröffentlichung
2020
Status
Published
Datum, an dem der Datensatz öffentlich gemacht wurde
2021
Titel
Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun.
Sub types
  • Journal Article
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Ausgabe der Zeitschrift
587

Data source: PubMed

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