Borexino Solar Neutrino Experiment

Borexino太阳中微子实验

• 批准号: 0802646
• 负责人: Frank Calaprice
• 金额: $ 289.8万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-03-01 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0802646&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Borexino; Solar; Neutrino; Experiment

PROPOSAL NUMBER: 0802646INSTITUTION: Princeton UniversityNSF PROGRAM: PHY - PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICSPRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Calaprice, Frank P.TITLE: Borexino Solar Neutrino Experiment ABSTRACTBorexino is a large underground liquid scintillation detector designed to observe low-energy neutrinos, subatomic particles produced by the sun, to elucidate how the sun produces energy and to better understand the fundamental properties of neutrinos. The detector, in operation since May 2007, contains 300 tons of ultra-pure liquid scintillator and is located in the underground Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy. The proton-proton (pp) cycle, by far the dominant set of nuclear fusion reactions in the sun?s dense, hot core, converts four hydrogen atoms into a helium atom and produces 26.7 MeV of energy per cycle. The energy is released to charged particles, gamma rays, and neutrinos. The charged particles and gamma rays transfer energy by collision processes to other atoms. Energy slowly diffuses to the solar surface, where it is radiated into space mainly as visible light. Neutrinos, on the other hand, interact only weakly with matter. They travel almost unperturbed out of the sun, providing a direct view into its core. Ninety percent (the so-called pp neutrinos) are generated in the first step of the pp cycle; most of the rest are produced in a later step of the cycle involving the isotope 7Be. Neutrinos have a small mass that allows the electron-type neutrinos to oscillate, between sun and Earth, into states that are more difficult to detect. Neutrino oscillations explain all the data, provided one also considers their weak interactions with the matter in the sun ? the matter-enhanced oscillations described by Mikheyev, Smirnov, and Wolfenstein (MSW). The Borexino detector has already acquired a first set of data that so far agrees with MSW predictions for 7Be neutrinos. This award will provide funding for Princeton University to continue to participate in the Borexino project. The scintillator system and the purification plants, both Princeton responsibilities, require ongoing maintenance and they intend to re-purify the scintillator to achieve still lower backgrounds in the detector, further enhancing clarity of the neutrino signals. The Borexino project will continue to provide an excellent opportunity for training graduate and undergraduate students in applications of electronics, chemistry, radiology, materials science, software development, and of course fundamental physics. For the past four years the Borexino project at Princeton has been active in an outreach program that brings high school students from a relatively poor region of Italy to Princeton for a summer program in physics. Technology developed in the process of detector construction and installation includes new low-background techniques and development of a system for the reduction of radon in air. Both have potential commercial or governmental use, e.g., in security applications.

提案编号：0802646机构：普林斯顿大学 NSF 项目：PHY - 粒子天体物理学主要研究员：Calaprice, Frank P.TITLE：Borexino 太阳中微子实验 摘要Borexino 是一个大型地下液体闪烁探测器，旨在观测低能中微子（太阳产生的亚原子粒子），阐明如何太阳产生能量并更好地了解中微子的基本特性。该探测器自 2007 年 5 月开始运行，包含 300 吨超纯液体闪烁体，位于意大利格兰萨索地下实验室。质子-质子 (pp) 循环是太阳致密炽热核心中迄今为止占主导地位的核聚变反应，可将四个氢原子转化为一个氦原子，每个循环产生 26.7 MeV 的能量。能量被释放为带电粒子、伽马射线和中微子。带电粒子和伽马射线通过碰撞过程将能量传递给其他原子。能量慢慢扩散到太阳表面，主要以可见光的形式辐射到太空。另一方面，中微子与物质的相互作用很弱。它们几乎不受干扰地离开太阳，可以直接看到它的核心。百分之九十（所谓的 pp 中微子）是在 pp 循环的第一步中产生的；其余大部分是在涉及同位素 7Be 的循环的后续步骤中产生的。中微子的质量很小，使得电子型中微子能够在太阳和地球之间振荡，进入更难以检测的状态。中微子振荡可以解释所有数据，只要我们还考虑到它们与太阳中物质的弱相互作用？ Mikheyev、Smirnov 和 Wolfenstein (MSW) 描述的物质增强振荡。 Borexino 探测器已经获得了第一组数据，到目前为止，这些数据与 MSW 对 7Be 中微子的预测一致。该奖项将为普林斯顿大学继续参与 Borexino 项目提供资金。闪烁体系统和净化装置均由普林斯顿大学负责，需要持续维护，他们打算重新净化闪烁体，以实现探测器中更低的背景，进一步提高中微子信号的清晰度。 Borexino 项目将继续为电子、化学、放射学、材料科学、软件开发，当然还有基础物理应用领域的研究生和本科生提供绝佳的培训机会。在过去的四年里，普林斯顿大学的 Borexino 项目一直积极开展一项外展计划，该计划将意大利相对贫困地区的高中生带到普林斯顿大学参加夏季物理课程。探测器建造和安装过程中开发的技术包括新的低本底技术和开发减少空气中氡气的系统。两者都有潜在的商业或政府用途，例如在安全应用中。