Penn's SNO Guys
Solar Neutrinos
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a second generation dedicated solar neutrino experiment which will extend the results of our work with the Kamiokande II detector by measuring three reactions of solar neutrinos rather than the single reaction measured by the Kamiokande II. The collaborative project includes physicists from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The motivation for the SNO experiment is to study the fundamental properties of neutrinos, in particular the mass and mixing parameters. This experiment,will extend our knowledge of these fundamental particles, and as a byproduct, improve our understanding of energy generation in the sun.
The SNO detector is located in a large cavity excavated at the 6800 foot level in the INCO, Ltd., Creighton mine near Sudbury, Ontario. The target for the solar neutrinos is 1000 tons of heavy water (D2O) contained in a twelve meter diameter acrylic vessel surrounded by a light water shield of minimum diameter twenty two meters. A spherical shell of diameter seventeen meters surrounds the D2O and supports almost 10,000 eight inch photomultiplier tubes (PMT), each with a light collecting reflector. Excavation of the cavity and auxiliary drifts was completed in the spring of 1993, and finish work on the laboratory is complete. The cavity is now operating routinely at better than class 10,000 cleanliness, and water fill is scheduled for February 1998.
Shown in the figure are
Penn graduate student Doug McDonald, Professor Josh Klein and
graduate student Peter Wittich (from left) and others with
the acrylic vessel underground in Sudbury.
Link to Department Graduate Program
Department Graduate Page
Andrea Liu
06 October 2005