Collaborative Research: Mini-LENS -- Operation of a Prototype Low-Energy Solar Neutrino Spectrometer Underground

来自太阳的中微子是研究中微子味现象和天体物理学的理想材料。太阳提供了最大的纯电子中微子源通量，加上中微子传输中的高物质密度，长基线和低中微子能量。一个有效的工具，新的进展比较太阳的光度分别测量中微子和光子，可以揭示中微子物理学以及天体物理学的惊喜。精确测量太阳的中微子光度只有通过探测包含99.9%通量的低能（2 MeV）太阳中微子才有可能。实时低能中微子探测的实验挑战的少数答案之一是铟基低能太阳中微子光谱仪，透镜。它将独特地提供一个几乎没有背景的完整的太阳中微子光谱图像，使用带电电流为基础的中微子探测与强大的标签的空间和时间的巧合。该奖项将提供资金，通过相对便宜的原型- Mini-LENS -在透镜长度比例（体积的1/300）的15%上测试透镜概念和技术的各个方面，目的是提供技术性能的可靠表征。对科学、技术和教育的更广泛影响包括：学生和博士后的参与，为好奇心和好奇心驱动的研究提供了机会和出路，通过模拟、化学处理和数据采集系统对世界进行物理学理解。学生将获得宝贵的实践经验与国家的最先进的仪器工作。方便地进入Kimballton的地下实验室，为地下研究的复杂性提供了极好的培训。微透镜技术的发展也涉及到其他领域，为其他领域提供了新的机遇。

Neutrinos from the Sun are ideal for studying neutrino-flavor phenomena and astrophysics. The Sun offers the greatest source flux of a pure electron-neutrino flavor coupled with high matter density in neutrino transport, long baseline, and low neutrino energies. An effective tool for new advances compares the luminosity of the Sun separately measured by neutrinos and photons that can uncover surprises in neutrino physics as well as astrophysics. A precision measurement of the neutrino-derived luminosity of the Sun is possible only by the detection of low-energy (2 MeV) solar neutrinos that contain 99.9% of the flux. One of the few answers to the experimental challenge of real-time low-energy neutrino detection is the indium-based Low Energy Solar Neutrino Spectrometer, LENS. It will uniquely provide a nearly background-free complete spectral image of solar neutrinos using Charged-Current-based neutrino detection with powerful tags of space and time coincidences. This award will provide funds to test the LENS concept and technology in all its aspects via a relatively inexpensive prototype - Mini-LENS - at 15% of the length-scale (1/300 the volume) of LENS, with the goal of providing a robust characterization of the performance of the technology. The broader impact on science, technology and education includes: the participation of students and postdocs with opportunities and outlets for curiosity- and imagination-driven research into a physics understanding of the world with simulations, chemical processing, and data acquisition systems. Students will gain valuable hands-on experience working with state-of-the-art instrumentation. Convenient access to the underground laboratory at Kimballton provides excellent training in the intricacies of research underground. The technology of mini-LENS reaches into other realms, and provides new opportunities in other fields.