The SNO+ experiment

Abstract

The SNO+ experiment is located 2 km underground at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Canada.\nA low background search for neutrinoless double beta ($0\\nu\\beta\\beta$) decay\nwill be conducted using 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator loaded with 3.9\ntonnes of natural tellurium, corresponding to 1.3 tonnes of $^{130}$Te. This\npaper provides a general overview of the SNO+ experiment, including detector\ndesign, construction of process plants, commissioning efforts, electronics\nupgrades, data acquisition systems, and calibration techniques. The SNO+\ncollaboration is reusing the acrylic vessel, PMT array, and electronics of the\nSNO detector, having made a number of experimental upgrades and essential\nadaptations for use with the liquid scintillator. With low backgrounds and a\nlow energy threshold, the SNO+ collaboration will also pursue a rich physics\nprogram beyond the search for $0\\nu\\beta\\beta$ decay, including studies of geo-\nand reactor antineutrinos, supernova and solar neutrinos, and exotic physics\nsuch as the search for invisible nucleon decay. The SNO+ approach to the search\nfor $0\\nu\\beta\\beta$ decay is scalable: a future phase with high\n$^{130}$Te-loading is envisioned to probe an effective Majorana mass in the\ninverted mass ordering region.\n