Seasonal Modulation of the $^7$Be Solar Neutrino Rate in Borexino

/ Authors

M. Agostini, K. Altenmüller, S. Appel, V. Atroshchenko, D. Basilico, G. Bellini, J. Benziger, D. Bick, G. Bonfini, L. Borodikhina

and 92 more authors

D. Bravo, B. Caccianiga, F. Calaprice, A. Caminata, S. Caprioli, M. Carlini, P. Cavalcante, A. Chepurnov, K. Choi, D. D’Angelo, S. Davini, A. Derbin, X. Ding, L. Noto, I. Drachnev, K. Fomenko, D. Franco, F. Froborg, F. Gabriele, C. Galbiati, C. Ghiano, M. Giammarchi, M. Goeger-Neff, A. Goretti, M. Gromov, C. Hagner, T. Houdy, E. Hungerford, A. Ianni, A. Ianni, A. Jany, D. Jeschke, V. Kobychev, D. Korablev, G. Korga, D. Kryn, M. Laubenstein, B. Lehnert, E. Litvinovich, F. Lombardi, P. Lombardi, L. Ludhova, G. Lukyanchenko, I. Machulin, S. Manecki, G. Manuzio, S. Marcocci, J. Martyn, E. Meroni, M. Meyer, L. Miramonti, M. Misiaszek, M. Montuschi, V. Muratova, B. Neumair, L. Oberauer, B. Opitz, F. Ortica, M. Pallavicini, L. Papp, A. Pocar, G. Ranucci, A. Razeto, A. Re, A. Romani, R. Roncin, N. Rossi, S. Schönert, D. Semenov, P. Shakina, M. Skorokhvatov, O. Smirnov, A. Sotnikov, L. Stokes, Y. Suvorov, R. Tartaglia, G. Testera, J. Thurn, M. Toropova, E. Unzhakov, A. Vishneva, R. Vogelaar, F. Feilitzsch, H. Wang, S. Weinz, M. Wójcik, M. Wurm, Z. Yokley, O. Zaimidoroga, S. Zavatarelli, Kai Zuber, G. Zuzel

/ Abstract

We present the evidence for the seasonal modulation of the 7 Be neutrino interaction rate with the Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The period, amplitude, and phase of the observed time evolution of the signal are consistent with its solar origin, and the absence of an annual modulation is rejected at 99.99% C.L. The data are analyzed using three methods: the analytical fit to event rate, the Lomb-Scargle and the Empirical Mode Decomposition techniques, which all yield results in excellent agreement.

Journal: Astroparticle Physics

DOI: 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.04.004