Abstract
Academician M.A. Markov in the 1960s first proposed detecting the electron antineutrino in the reaction of inverse beta decay on a proton to study the processes inside the Earth. The radioactive isotopes 238U, 232Th, and 40K present in our planet decay with radiation of neutrinos (antineutrinos). Neutrinos that are produced reach the Earth’s surface practically without absorption and carry information about the internal structure of the planet. However, because of the smallness of the antineutrino fluxes and interaction cross sections with matter, antineutrinos of geological origin were first registered in only two experiments (Borexino and Kamland) in recent years. The experimental observation of antineutrinos from the isotope decays in the depths of the Earth is the only way to study the radiation in our planetary interior.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. C. Brown and A. E. Mussett, The Inaccessible Earth (Chapman Hall, London, 1993).
J. M. Herndon, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 646 (1996).
C. Jaupart, S. Labrosse, and J. C. Mareschal, in Treatise of Geophysics, Ed. by D. J. Stevenson (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2007).
J. H. Davies and D. R. Davies, Solid Earth 1, 5 (2010).
S. A. Fayans, Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 42, 590 (1985).
G. Bellini et al. (Borexino Collab.), Phys. Lett. 687, 299 (2013).
A. Gando et al. (Kamland Collab.), Phys. Rev. D 88, 1 (2013).
W. F. McDonough, Chem. Geol. 120, 223 (1995).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © I.N. Machulin, 2014, published in Yadernaya Fizika i Inzhiniring, 2014, Vol. 5, Nos. 11–12, pp. 900–903.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Machulin, I.N., Borexino Collaboration. Geoneutrinos. Phys. Atom. Nuclei 78, 1613–1616 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063778815130219
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063778815130219