Detection of Geo-Neutrinos with the KamLAND Detector

Yuri Efremenko
University of Tennessee-Knoxville

It is widely believed that the decay of long-lived isotopes is a powerful source of heat generated inside the Earth. Antineutrinos produced during the decay of those isotopes can escape from the interior of our planet and be detected. The first results of an attempt to detect such geo-antineutrinos using KamLAND, a one kiloton liquid scintillator detector located in a mine in centralJapan, were published in the August issue of Nature. This measurement opens a new window to study the Earth's interior