[en] The LENS detector is designed to be a real time spectrometer sensitive to the sub-MeV part of the solar neutrino spectrum, including pp-neutrinos which dominate the solar neutrino flux. The objective of LENS is to measure the Neutrino Luminosity of the sun with high precision, which will allow a test of current standard and nonstandard neutrino flavor conversion models along with the solar model in a single experiment, and might open doors to new physics. In addition, the Gamow-energy shift in the pp-neutrino spectrum could be measured, directly probing the temperature profile of pp fusion in the solar core, thus bringing solar neutrino physics full circle to its original astrophysical objective, i.e. the study of the sun. The experimental tool used is tagged capture of ν_e's on ¹¹⁵In via charged current interaction. Tremendous progress has been achieved in the detector design, In liquid scintillator chemistry and background rejection study. A novel design for a liquid scintillator detector, the 'Scintillation Lattice Chamber' will provide 3-dimensional spatial resolution in a large mass of liquid scintillator. The feasibility of LENS with less than 200t of scintillator has been established

[en] The LENS detector will be a real time spectrometer sensitive to the sub-MeV part of the solar neutrino spectrum, including pp-neutrinos which dominate the solar neutrino fiux. LENS will measure the Neutrino-inferred Luminosity of the sun with high precision, which will allow a test of current standard and nonstandard neutrino flavor conversion models along with the solar model in a single experiment, and might open doors to new physics. In addition, the Gamow-energy shift in the pp-neutrino spectrum could be measured, directly probing the temperature profile of pp fusion in the solar core, thus bringing solar neutrino physics back to its original astrophysical objective, i.e. the study of the sun. The experimental tool used is tagged capture of ν_e's on ¹¹⁵In via charged current interaction. Tremendous progress has been achieved in the detector design, In liquid scintillator chemistry and background rejection study. A novel design for a liquid scintillator detector, the ''Scintillation Lattice Chamber'' will provide 3-dimensional spatial resolution in a large mass of liquid scintillator. The feasibility of LENS with less than 200t of scintillator has been established

[en] The particle kinetic energies of thermonuclear pp fusion in the Sun (Gamow energy) produce small changes in the energies of pp solar neutrinos relative to those due only to exothermal energetics. This effect may be observable via the unique tools of the LENS solar neutrino detector. The temperature profile of energy production in the Sun may thus be directly probed for the first time

[en] Liquid scintillators used in low counting rate experiments-like the neutrino experiments Borexino [Astroparticle Physics 16 (2002) 205] and Kamland [Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl. 145 (2005) 11]-usually have to fulfil high requirements concerning their radiopurity. In this context, silica gel chromatography is a promising purification method to extract traces of polar impurities from liquid scintillators. This publication presents a purification model along with the results of new laboratory experiments, which among others examine a purification mode predicted to be particularly efficient. Possible limitations in the purification capability of silica gel are investigated

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