underground science

The Deep Underground Sky:Underground Science in the 21st Century: 

The Deep Underground Sky: Underground Science in the 21st Century Marvin L. Marshak University of Minnesota April 3, 2001

Underground Science: Fundamental Questions: 

Underground Science: Fundamental Questions What is the origin of the universe? What is the nature of the fundamental interactions? What is the eventual destiny of the Universe? What are some ways to apply science to improve people’s lives?

Underground Science:Observing the Sky: 

Underground Science: Observing the Sky Neutrino Telescopes—observing the sun, supernovae, gamma ray bursts?,neutrino point sources? Neutrino Mass and Oscillations— atmospheric neutrinos and long-baseline neutrino experiments Dark Matter Searches Precision Low-Background radioassay—tracing effluents, nuclear non-proliferation enforcement

Terrestrial Underground Science: 

Terrestrial Underground Science Double Beta Decay Nucleon Decay Nuclear Astrophysics—precision measurements of fusion cross-sections Geoscience—rock mechanics, water percolation, heating tests Materials Development—low background semiconductors Microbiology—evolution in harsh environments

Underground Science Committee—NP, EP: 

Underground Science Committee—NP, EP John Bahcall, Institute for Advanced Studies Barry Barish, Caltech Frank Calaprice*, Princeton Janet Conrad, Columbia Peter Doe*, U. Washington Thomas Gaisser, U. Delaware Wick Haxton, U. Washington Kevin Lesko, LBNL Marvin Marshak*, U. Minnesota Kem Robinson*, LBNL Bernard Sadoulet, UC Berkeley Henry Sobel, UC Irvine Michael Wiescher, Notre Dame Stan Wojcicki, Stanford John Wilkerson, U. Washington * Technical Sub-Committee

Technical Sub-Committee: 

Technical Sub-Committee Met with Committee in Washington December 14 Visited potential sites at Homestake, Soudan, Carlsbad and San Jacinto Visited Gran Sasso and Kamioka Identified “green field” sites along California-Nevada border Met with full Committee March 3-4 in Berkeley Prepared documents on “Evaluation Criteria” and a “Technical Assessment Report” www.sns.ias.edu/~bahcall

Committee Recommendation: 

Committee Recommendation Establish a national underground science laboratory at Homestake Mine in Black Hills of South Dakota Presented last week to NSAC and HEPAP

Next Generation Solar Detectors: 

Next Generation Solar Detectors What are the scientific questions? What is the origin of the solar neutrino problem? Do we understand nuclear astrophysics? What is the nature of neutrino mixing? What can we learn about neutrino masses and mixing angles? Do neutrinos have non-Standard Model properties? (is lepton number conserved?, how does neutrino transform under charge conjugation?, etc.)

Next Generation Solar Detectors: 

Next Generation Solar Detectors Detectors will have multiple physics capabilities Supernovae detection Search for high energy neutrino bursts, gamma ray bursts? Atmospheric neutrinos Long baseline experiments

Next Generation Solar Detectors: 

Next Generation Solar Detectors Detectors should have low energy threshold (≤1 Mev) to detect p-p neutrinos New coincidence techniques (LENS, MOON) Low-temperature detectors (CLEAN, HERON, HP TPC) Require ultra-low radioactivity materials Underground chemistry and materials preparation labs Ultra-low activity radioassay laboratory

Next Generation Solar Detectors: 

Next Generation Solar Detectors Laboratory Requirements Underground depths ≥ 5000 mwe Space of 7500 - 900,000 m3 Clean room environment Low radon levels Safety issues because of possible large quantities of cryogens and/or hazardous materials (scintillators)

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics: 

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics What are scientific questions? Do we understand the low-energy nuclear physics that power stars? What is the influence of nuclear structure, nuclear reactions on evolution, energy generation and time scale in stars and stellar explosions? What is origin of elements that comprise present day universe?

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics: 

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics What are experimental issues? Extremely low rate measurements are dominated by backgrounds when done above ground The Laboratory for Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) at Gran Sasso has made significant progress in the studies of reactions in the p-p burning chain (e.g. 3He(3He,2p)4He) A high-intensity, low energy heavy-ion accelerator underground could perform inverse kinematics experiments

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics: 

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics What are laboratory requirements? Depths ~4,000 mwe Space of ~6,000 m3 Safety issues associated with operations of an accelerator

Underground Microbiology: 

Underground Microbiology Examine evolution of life forms in harsh environments Sulfur-based organisms found near underwater volcanic vents Deep underground environment has high lithostatic pressure, high temperature and non-neutral pH Analogous to searching for life on other planets

Technological Applications:Precision Radioassay: 

Technological Applications: Precision Radioassay For short-lived isotopes (hours to a few days), more sensitive than mass spectroscopy Can use neutron activation to convert long-lived isotopes to short-lived isotopes Trace power plant effluent by assaying isotopes released from burning coal Detect nuclear tests by measuring concentrations of 133Xe and 135Xe

Why Homestake?: 

Why Homestake? More than 800 km of existing tunnels at depths to 8,000 feet Mine closing at end of 2001 after 125 years EPSCoR state with strong, statewide support for project

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Interest in Multiple Areas 1. Multiple Interest - Siegrist, Schroeder, LBNL, 1-Mar-01, solar neutrino, double beta decay, dark matter, long baseline, low background, and nuclear astrophysics 2. Multiple Interest - Bowles et al LANL, 28-Feb-01, LENS (solar neutrino), long baseline, low background, supernova, and nucleon decay 3. Multiple Interest - Peter Smith, Rutherford Lab 12-Feb-01, OMNIS (supernova), large scintillator–solar  detector, and liquid Xe dark matter 4. Supplement to above Smith letter, Peter Smith, Rutherford Lab, 20-Feb-01 5. Multiple Interest - McKeown and Vogel Cal Tech, 12-Feb-01, solar neutrino, double beta decay, dark matter 6. Multiple Interest - Avignone South Carolina, 19-Feb-01, solar neutrino, double beta decay, dark matter, supernova

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Solar Neutrinos 7. CLEAN (Low energy solar neutrino cryogenic) – Doyle, Harvard, 7-Feb-01 8. HERON (superfluid He LE neutrino) – Lanou, Brown, 7-Feb-01 9. High Pressure TPC for solar neutrinos – Bonicini, Wayne State, 5-Feb-01 10.Hybrid radiochemical low energy solar neutrino - Lande et al, Penn 11. Solar Neutrinos – Gavrin, INR, Russia, 19-Feb-01 34. A GaAs Solar Neutrino Detector – T. Bowles, et al., LANL, 16 February 2001 35. LENS – S. Raghavan and M. Cribier et al. Also see: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 13.

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Double Beta Decay 12. EXO (136Xe ) – Gratta, Stanford, 5-Feb-01 13. MOON (100Mo  & solar ) - Ejiri & Robertson, Osaka, Univ Wash, 3-Mar-01 Also see: 1, 2, 5, 6, and 16. 36. Majorana – H. Miley, Pacific Northwest Laboratories, 29 March 2001

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Dark Matter 14. CryoArray -- CDMSIII, WIMP detection - Gaitskell & Akerib, University College London & Case Western Reserve, 16-Feb-01 15. Dark Matter - Collar, CNRS, France, 20-Feb-01 16. Dark Matter, neutrino detection – Willis, Columbia, (see Aprile below) 17. DRIFT (WIMP TPC detector) - Martoff & Snowden-Ifft Temple University 18. Liquid Xe for Dark Matter - Aprile & Hailey, Columbia, 18-Feb-01 19. WIMPS with neutrons – Ward, Dept. of Energy, 20-Feb-01 Also see: 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Nucleon Decay 20.UNO (nucleon decay) – Jung & Sobel, Stony Brook & UCI for UNO proto-collaboration, 20-Feb-01 21.Nucleon Decay - Mann and Lande, Univ. of Penn, 5-Feb-01 Also see: 2 and 3. Atmospheric Neutrinos See: Nucleon Decay, Long Baseline, and Solar Neutrino Experiments. Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiments 22.Long Baseline – Neutrino Factory - Schellman for 23 signers, 15 Institutions, 18-Feb-01 23.Neutrino Factory Detector at WIPP – Cline, UCLA, Also see: 1, 2, and 3.

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Supernova Neutrinos 24. OMNIS (supernova) at WIPP - Boyd and Murphy, Ohio State 25. OMNIS - Fenyves & Burgett, Univ. of Texas-Dallas, 16-Feb-01 Also see: 1, 2, 3, 6, Nucleon Decay, and Solar Neutrino Experiments. Nuclear Astrophysics 26. Nuclear Astrophysics Accelerator Measurements – Gai, Univ. Conn, 16-Feb-01 27. Nuclear Astrophysics Accelerator Measurements – Greife, Colorado School of Mines, 7-Feb-01 Also see: 1

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Geoscience 28. Geophysics – Benson, LBNL, 19-Feb-01 Also see 33 Materials Development and Technology 29. Low background studies - Coursey, Karam, Lindstrom, Nico, NIST, 21-Feb-01 30. Cyro-detectors for neutrino scattering and gravity - Trimble (for Weber), UCI, 8-Feb-01 Also see: 1, 2, 31, and 32.

Letters of Interest: 

Letters of Interest Monitoring Nuclear Tests 31.PIsCES (ultra-low background detectors and materials analysis) – Hartmann for collaboration, NRL, 32.PIsCES (ultra-low background detectors and materials analysis) – Gursky, NRL, 8-Feb-01 Microbiology 33. Biology and Geoscience, Onstott for collaboration, Princeton, 16-Feb-01

Outreach Program: 

Outreach Program People are interested in Cosmos Both on and off-site outreach Expect >100,000 visitors per year Underground experience for all; some will choose to go deep underground NSF’s “Cape Kennedy” Special outreach initiatives to EPSCoR states, underrepresented groups

Current Status: 

Current Status Proposal on laptop to go to NSF by April 15 South Dakota legislature has approved accepting title Sen. Tom Daschle will seek to add Homestake indemnification to tax bill Scientific peer review Political pressure on President and Congress to increase NSF budget in FY2002 to fund laboratory