Neutrinos from the primary proton-proton fusion process in the Sun
G. Bellini
(1)
,
J. Benziger
(2)
,
D. Bick
(3)
,
G. Bonfini
(4)
,
D. Bravo
(5)
,
B. Caccianiga
(1)
,
Laura Cadonati
(6)
,
F. Calaprice
(2)
,
A. Caminata
(7)
,
P. Cavalcante
(4)
,
A. Chavarria
(2)
,
A. Chepurnov
(8)
,
Davide d'Angelo
(1)
,
S. Davini
(9)
,
A. Derbin
(10)
,
A. Empl
(9)
,
A. Etenko
(11)
,
K. Fomenko
(4)
,
Davide Franco
(12)
,
F. Gabriele
(4)
,
C. Galbiati
(2)
,
S. Gazzana
(4)
,
C. Ghiano
(7)
,
Marco Giammarchi
(1)
,
Marianne Göger-Neff
(13)
,
A. M. Goretti
(2)
,
M. Gromov
(8)
,
Caren Hagner
(3)
,
E. V. Hungerford
(9)
,
Aldo Ianni
(4)
,
Andrea Ianni
(2)
,
V. V. Kobychev
(14)
,
D. Korablev
(15)
,
G. Korga
(9)
,
D. Kryn
(12)
,
M. Laubenstein
(4)
,
B. Lehnert
(16)
,
T. Lewke
(13)
,
E. Litvinovich
(11)
,
F. Lombardi
(4)
,
Paolo Lombardi
(1)
,
Livia Ludhova
(1)
,
G. Lukyanchenko
(11)
,
I. N. Machulin
(11)
,
S. Manecki
(5)
,
W. Maneschg
(17)
,
S. Marcocci
(18)
,
Q. Meindl
(13)
,
Emanuela Meroni
(1)
,
Michael R. Meyer
(3)
,
Lino Miramonti
(1)
,
M. Misiaszek
(19)
,
M. Montuschi
(4)
,
P. Mosteiro
(2)
,
V. N. Muratova
(10)
,
Lothar Oberauer
(13)
,
Michel Obolensky
(12)
,
Fausto Ortica
(20)
,
K. Otis
(6)
,
Marco Pallavicini
(7)
,
L. Papp
(5)
,
L. Perasso
(7)
,
A. Pocar
(6)
,
Gioacchino Ranucci
(1)
,
A. Razeto
(4)
,
A. Re
(1)
,
Aldo Romani
(20)
,
N. Rossi
(4)
,
R. Saldanha
(2)
,
C. Salvo
(7)
,
Stefan Schönert
(13)
,
H. Simgen
(17)
,
M. D. Skorokhvatov
(11)
,
O. Yu. Smirnov
(15)
,
A. Sotnikov
(15)
,
S. Sukhotin
(11)
,
Y. Suvorov
(4)
,
R. Tartaglia
(4)
,
G. Testera
(7)
,
Daniel Vignaud
(12)
,
R. B. Vogelaar
(5)
,
F. Von Feilitzsch
(13)
,
Haimin Wang
(21)
,
J. Winter
(22)
,
M. Wójcik
(19)
,
A. Wright
(2)
,
Michael Wurm
(22)
,
O. Zaimidoroga
(15)
,
Sandra Zavatarelli
(7)
,
K. Zuber
(16)
,
G. Zuzel
1
Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita degli Studi e INFN, 20133 Milano, Italy.
2 Princeton University
3 Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg
4 INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di L'Aquila
5 Physics Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
6 Department of Physics [Amherst]
7 UniGe - Università degli studi di Genova = University of Genoa
8 MSU - Lomonosov Moscow State University
9 Department of Physics, University of Houston
10 St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188350 Gatchina, Russia.
11 National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute
12 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
13 Physik-Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universitat Munchen, 85748 Garching, Germany.
14 Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research
15 JINR - Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
16 Department of Physics, Technische Universitat Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
17 Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
18 Gran Sasso Science Institute
19 M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagellonian University
20 Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Universita degli Studi e INFN, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
21 UCLA - University of California, Los Angeles
22 JGU - Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz = Johannes Gutenberg University
2 Princeton University
3 Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg
4 INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di L'Aquila
5 Physics Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
6 Department of Physics [Amherst]
7 UniGe - Università degli studi di Genova = University of Genoa
8 MSU - Lomonosov Moscow State University
9 Department of Physics, University of Houston
10 St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188350 Gatchina, Russia.
11 National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute
12 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
13 Physik-Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universitat Munchen, 85748 Garching, Germany.
14 Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research
15 JINR - Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
16 Department of Physics, Technische Universitat Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
17 Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
18 Gran Sasso Science Institute
19 M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagellonian University
20 Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Universita degli Studi e INFN, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
21 UCLA - University of California, Los Angeles
22 JGU - Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz = Johannes Gutenberg University
Résumé
In the core of the Sun, energy is released through sequences of nuclear reactions that convert hydrogen into helium. The primary reaction is thought to be the fusion of two protons with the emission of a low-energy neutrino. These so-called pp neutrinos constitute nearly the entirety of the solar neutrino flux, vastly outnumbering those emitted in the reactions that follow. Although solar neutrinos from secondary processes have been observed, proving the nuclear origin of the Sun's energy and contributing to the discovery of neutrino oscillations, those from proton-proton fusion have hitherto eluded direct detection. Here we report spectral observations of pp neutrinos, demonstrating that about 99 per cent of the power of the Sun, 3.84 × 1033 ergs per second, is generated by the proton-proton fusion process.