Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Aug 14, 2020 10:41:33 GMT 2
(.#465).- Japan will build the world's largest neutrino detector.
Japan will build the world's largest neutrino detector.
By: Brice Louvet, science editor
January 2, 2020, 9 h 51 min
Interior of the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory.
Credits: Kamioka Observatory / ICRR / University of Tokyo
Japan is soon to build the largest neutrino detector in history, promising revolutionary discoveries about these ubiquitous but elusive particles.
Neutrinos are elementary particles generated by nuclear reactions resulting from cosmic cataclysms, like supernovae. Traveling at speeds close to light, they are everywhere. In addition, they are 100,000 times smaller than an electron and their mass is virtually zero. These properties make neutrinos very rarely interact with other particles. This is why they are elusive despite their abundance. For example, about 100,000 billion neutrinos pass through your body every second.
However, the researchers are not giving up. Several installations have already been developed with the aim of recording the traces of their passage (Cherenkov light) when they cross the water at a speed close to that of light.
These installations appear as gigantic tanks filled with pure water bordered by ultra-sensitive light detectors called photomultipliers. They are used to detect weak flashes emitted when a neutrino collides with an atom contained in water.
Credits : Pixabay
A new megastructure
For the moment, the results of these installations are mixed. Japan, which already has the Super-Kamiokande (one of the most important neutrino observatories on the planet), will therefore build an even larger new one. A committee of experts has just approved its construction on December 13.
This structure, 71 meters deep and 68 meters wide, will be called Hyper-Kamiokande. It will contain 260,000 tonnes of ultra-pure water, more than five times the amount contained in Super-Kamiokande. They will build this detector inside a gigantic cave dug with explosives, next to the Kamioka mine in Hida City.
Its construction is expected to cost a total of 64.9 billion yen, or about 540 million euros. The project will also require an additional 7.3 billion yen for upgrades to the J-PARC accelerator. Located about 300 kilometers further south, it will generate the neutrino beam.
Understanding baryonic asymmetry
Once operational, this detector will be able to study differences in the behavior of neutrinos and antineutrinos (their antimatter counterparts). This could help us understand why the Universe seems to contain so much more matter than antimatter (baryonic asymmetry).
We note that two other next generation neutrino experiments will also start in the 2020s: the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) which will start operating in the United States in 2025 and the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), in China, who should start collecting data as early as 2021.
F I N .
Japan will build the world's largest neutrino detector.
By: Brice Louvet, science editor
January 2, 2020, 9 h 51 min
Interior of the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory.
Credits: Kamioka Observatory / ICRR / University of Tokyo
Japan is soon to build the largest neutrino detector in history, promising revolutionary discoveries about these ubiquitous but elusive particles.
Neutrinos are elementary particles generated by nuclear reactions resulting from cosmic cataclysms, like supernovae. Traveling at speeds close to light, they are everywhere. In addition, they are 100,000 times smaller than an electron and their mass is virtually zero. These properties make neutrinos very rarely interact with other particles. This is why they are elusive despite their abundance. For example, about 100,000 billion neutrinos pass through your body every second.
However, the researchers are not giving up. Several installations have already been developed with the aim of recording the traces of their passage (Cherenkov light) when they cross the water at a speed close to that of light.
These installations appear as gigantic tanks filled with pure water bordered by ultra-sensitive light detectors called photomultipliers. They are used to detect weak flashes emitted when a neutrino collides with an atom contained in water.
Credits : Pixabay
A new megastructure
For the moment, the results of these installations are mixed. Japan, which already has the Super-Kamiokande (one of the most important neutrino observatories on the planet), will therefore build an even larger new one. A committee of experts has just approved its construction on December 13.
This structure, 71 meters deep and 68 meters wide, will be called Hyper-Kamiokande. It will contain 260,000 tonnes of ultra-pure water, more than five times the amount contained in Super-Kamiokande. They will build this detector inside a gigantic cave dug with explosives, next to the Kamioka mine in Hida City.
Its construction is expected to cost a total of 64.9 billion yen, or about 540 million euros. The project will also require an additional 7.3 billion yen for upgrades to the J-PARC accelerator. Located about 300 kilometers further south, it will generate the neutrino beam.
Understanding baryonic asymmetry
Once operational, this detector will be able to study differences in the behavior of neutrinos and antineutrinos (their antimatter counterparts). This could help us understand why the Universe seems to contain so much more matter than antimatter (baryonic asymmetry).
We note that two other next generation neutrino experiments will also start in the 2020s: the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) which will start operating in the United States in 2025 and the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), in China, who should start collecting data as early as 2021.
F I N .
