8Li electron spectrum versus 8B neutrino spectrum: implications for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Abstract

The sensitivity of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) to measure the shape of the recoil electron spectrum in the charged-current reaction of $^{8}$B solar neutrinos interacting with deuterium can be improved if the results of a $^{8}$Li beta-decay calibration experiment are included in the test. We calculate an improvement in sensitivity, under certain idealistic assumptions, of about a factor of 2, sufficient to resolve different neutrino-oscillation solutions to the solar-neutrino problem. We further examine the role of recoil and radiative corrections on both the $^{8}$B neutrino spectrum and the $^{8}$Li electron spectrum and conclude that the influence of these effects on the ratio of the two spectra as measured by SNO is very small.

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