The SNO+ Experiment is a neutrino experiment which first aim is to detect the neutrinoless double beta decay process in Te130. It is the successor of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and is located in the SNOLAB underground laboratory in Canada. The detection of such rare nuclear decay will imply physics beyond the standard model and can prove the nature, as well as the mass hierarchy, of the neutrino. Due to the expected low rate of this process, the experiment needs to avoid any possible contamination entangling the expected signal. Placing it underground, reducing the possible radioactive contamination during its installation and applying background reduction techniques is mandatory.
The experiment is divided in three phases, filling the sensitive volume with water, scintillator and Te loaded scintillator phase. In each phase different physics can be studied, although its main focus will be during the Te loaded scintillator phase. In this talk the status of the experiment, which expects to start taking data in water in June 2016, will be presented. Special attention will be given to the recently new loading technique developed by the collaboration to load the Te into the organic scintillator (LAB). Furthermore, the expected sensitivity and background model will be discussed, showing the competitiveness of the experiment in the field.
University of Oxford