Underground science

Greg Bock, acting head of the Particle Physics Division, wrote this week's column.

Greg Bock

Quick: How many collaborations use the MINOS hall, 350 feet underneath the Fermilab site? If your answer was “One,” you are mistaken.

About 10 groups of physicists have used the hall to conduct, build or plan tests and experiments in the five years since its completion. Demand for this underground space has become so high that the Particle Physics Division has named Catherine James as the MINOS area coordinator. She makes sure that tenants obtain access to the area without interfering with each other's projects.

The best known tenant of the area, of course, is MINOS. The MINOS collaboration installed its neutrino detector in 2004 and uses the high-intensity muon neutrino beam that traverses the hall for its neutrino oscillation search. MINOS has already published several physics results and presented its latest findings this summer at the International Conference on High Energy Physics.

The MINOS area has attracted many other groups of physicists who need an intense neutrino beam or who value the layers of rock above the hall to hide their detectors from cosmic rays. Among them is COUPP, which installed its first dark matter detector in the hall in late 2005. Earlier this year, COUPP published its first dark matter search results. This fall, the collaboration plans to replace its one-liter bubble chamber with a 30-times larger one, improving the sensitivity of its dark matter search. Another group of physicists uses the MINOS area to test charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, for possible dark matter detection.

A nice feature of neutrino experiments is that you can line them up one in front of the other so that they can share a neutrino beam. MINERvA will soon begin to install prototype neutrino detectors in front of the MINOS detector. MINERvA plans to measure low-energy neutrino interactions both in support of neutrino oscillation experiments and to study the particle interactions inside nuclei.

In 2009, the NOvA collaboration expects to receive approval for the construction of its off-axis neutrino experiment. The collaboration is already carrying out the design for blasting out its own underground space, adjacent to the MINOS hall. The new space will allow NOvA scientists to position a 222-ton neutrino detector off the center of the MINOS muon neutrino beam. NOvA will build a second detector, which weighs 15,000 tons, in Ash River, Minn. The major science goal of the NOvA experiment is the observation of muon neutrinos transforming into electron neutrinos. The observation will bring us a step closer to understanding what role neutrinos play in the evolution of the universe.

Two smaller neutrino physics groups have ties to the MINOS area as well. In 2005, the PEANUT collaboration used the muon neutrino beam to test emulsion technology for the OPERA neutrino experiment in Italy, which looks for the transformation of muon neutrinos into tau neutrinos. This fall, the ArgoNeuT collaboration will install its liquid-argon neutrino detector in the MINOS area. Within six months, the collaboration expects to record tens of thousands of muon neutrinos--the first real test of this technology in the United States.

Other tests and measurements are underway or proposed, from studying the motion of cavern floors to testing neutrino beam instrumentation to measuring radiation induced by muon beams.

So far, there seems to be no letup in the desire to use the MINOS area. If you build it underground, they will come.

ES&H weekly report, September 16, 2008

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ES&H section, lists two minor first-aid incidents. The laboratory has worked 27 days without a reportable incident. The full safety report is here.

Safety report archive

Have a safe day!

Dark matter, dark energy talk in D.C
The Smithsonian in Washington D.C. will feature three prominent physicists in a discussion about dark matter and dark energy on Sept. 24. Fermilab theorist Joe Lykken and University of Chicago astrophysicists Rocky Kolb and Michael Turner will discuss upcoming research, including the use of accelerators, particle detectors and telescopes to unravel the mystery of what constitutes the 96 percent of universe that does not consist of known matter. Click here to learn more

Teen robotics club sign up Saturday
Computing Division's Dave Dykstra is seeking high school students for the competitive Batavia Robotics club he coaches. An organizational meeting will be held the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 20. Teams will be formed soon. To attend, contact Dave Dykstra dwd@fnal.gov. To learn more, see a previous Fermilab Today story.

Tango lessons get new time, class
The ongoing Wednesday dance lessons in Ramsey Auditorium will meet at new times. The beginner class will meet at 7 p.m. The intermediate/advanced class will meet at 8 p.m. The new basic I & II level classes, starting Sept. 24 and running through Oct. 15, will meet at 6:30 p.m. for the first class and 7 p.m. thereafter. The four-set class costs $60 per person. Pay at the first class. To sign-up, e-mail Pamela Noyes, noyes@fnal.gov.

Flu shot clinics for 2008 season
Use the east entrance of each building for the following clinics: Oct. 2 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Wilson Hall, ES&H training room, Oct. 14 from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the Industrial Center Building's main floor lunch room, Oct. 21 from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Wilson Hall ES&H training room. Active full-time employees, term employees and temporary employees are eligible for the vaccinations. Not eligible are: contractors, family members of employees, visitors/experimenters, seasonal employees, dayworkers, on-call employees and retirees. Register online at the ES&H homepage or call ext. 3232. Bring your Fermilab ID card and a completed consent form from the ES&H homepage. Wear a loose-fitting shirt. Pregnant employees need a note from a doctor.

 
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