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The Borexino scientific collaboration is an experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. Project researchers on November 25 announced the first ever detection of neutrinos produced by the sun by the CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) cycle. The project is an experimental result of historical value that completes a chapter of physics started in the 1930s.
The researchers point out that the implication for measurement on understanding stellar mechanisms is enormous. The CNO cycle is predominant in the most massive stars of the Sun. Upon obtaining observation, Borexino found experimental evidence of the most dominant channel in the universe for the combustion of hydrogen.
Borexino has previously studied in detail the main mechanism of energy production in the sun. The experiment studied the proton-proton chain through the individual detection of all neutrino fluxes originating from the proton-proton chain. Now that he has been able to measure the neutrinos produced by the CNO cycle, Borexino has provided the first experimental proof of the existence of this additional energy generation mechanism.
The result provides experimental confirmation of how stars shine. The result of the experiment is the accumulation of a thirty-year effort started in 1990 and more than ten years of discoveries in the physics of the sun, neutrinos and stars conducted by Borexino. To obtain the results of the experiment, extreme sensitivity was required.
Borexino was built using an onion-like design featuring layers of increasing radio purity making it the world’s most unique detector for ultra-low background level. The experiment was placed underground to protect it from cosmic radiation with the exception of neutrinos which can pass through the Earth undisturbed. The researchers point out that measuring the CNL cycle neutrinos was complicated and required significant hardware and software effort.
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