NNN09
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Meeting attendees at the International Workshop on Next Generation Nucleon Decay and Neutrino Detectors. |
The International Workshop on Next Generation Nucleon Decay and Neutrino Detectors, NNN09, took place in Estes Park, Colorado, Oct. 8-10. This was the tenth in a series of meetings that have taken place annually around the world, focusing on experiments that go beyond the reach of current projects and the theoretical work that motivates and describes such advances. An additional purpose of these meetings is to build international collaborations. The meeting had strong participation from the U.S., Japan and Europe. I gave the closing talk at the conference.
The subject of massive neutrino and nucleon decay detectors is central to the Fermilab program over the next decade. The level of activity in the world on the subject is quite large. In Japan, JPARC has just started operations and will deliver a neutrino beam to the Super Kamiokande detector starting this fall. There are plans to upgrade the machine power to 750 kW in the next several years, a power similar to the upgrade of the Main Injector for the NOvA project at Fermilab. Beyond that, depending on the measurement of one of the neutrino oscillation parameters, Θ13 , physicists discuss further upgrades to 1.6 MW beam power and massive megaton-class detectors.
In the U.S., the funding has been approved by both DOE and NSF to prepare the design of the beamline at Fermilab and the design of large detectors at the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at the Homestake Mine in South Dakota. The designs will take place over the next two years. Before the groundbreaking, we will have the measurement of Θ13 in hand.
The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) is a central feature of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) recommendations for the U.S. program. The program would start operations with the Main Injector beam developed for NOvA and ultimately be upgraded with Project X, providing a 2 MW beam.
In Europe, there was a recent workshop to define the European neutrino program as input for future planning. A large collaboration, LAGUNA, is analyzing seven sites across Europe at varying distances from CERN, at various depths and using different detector technologies. In the meantime, CERN is building an upgrade to their LHC injection chain with all the hooks necessary to upgrade the facility to an intense source of protons that could produce powerful neutrino beams.
Clearly the planning in the U.S. is well ahead, with a site proposed and with funding available for the designs. It is important to start building the international framework that would bring strong participation from partners around the world. Clearly the regional programs that will attract that sort of collaboration are those that will be anchored by the most powerful neutrino beams. In this context, Project X is a critical component for us to attract strong international collaboration.
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