Collaborative Research: WoU-MMA: Particle Astrophysics with the Hyper-Kamiokande Detector

合作研究：WoU-MMA：使用 Hyper-Kamiokande 探测器进行粒子天体物理学

• 批准号: 2309964
• 负责人: ROBERT VOGELAAR
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2309964&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; WoU; MMA; Particle

Hyper-Kamiokande is a particle physics detector that is constructed 600m underground in the Kamioka mine In Hida City, Japan. The detector consists of a 68m diameter and 71m high water tank surrounded by 20,000 50cm diameter photo-sensors which detect the light emissions of particles traversing the water. Its primary purpose is to study neutrinos, elementary particles without electric charge that interact only weakly with detector materials, thus requiring a large detector mass. Hyper-Kamiokande’s mass of 260,000 metric tons makes it the largest detector of this type that has been built so far: the target mass available for neutrino measurement of Hyper-Kamiokande will be more than ten times the equivalent mass of Super-Kamiokande, its predecessor. Hyper-Kamiokande will observe neutrinos in a wide energy range from a variety of natural and man-made sources such as astrophysical neutrinos (e.g. from the sun or stellar explosions known as supernovae), atmospheric neutrinos, and in addition, neutrinos from a beam produced by a particle accelerator at a distance of 295km. Neutrinos are ideal messengers to understand astrophysical phenomena as they are not influenced by electromagnetic forces. Hyper-Kamiokande will therefore serve as an astrophysical neutrino observatory, but it will also study the nature of the neutrino particle itself and will search for the extremely rare decays of protons (or neutrons). This project is to focus upon the astrophysical neutrinos including those of lower energy that may result in new discoveries. A large set of activities included within the participating universities focusing on students in K-12 and at the undergraduate level will provide these students with the opportunity to engage in a world class experiment involving a broad international collaboration.To realize the astrophysical potential of Hyper-Kamiokande, the project will focus on work to optimize triggering, calibration and reconstruction of neutrino interactions, in particular at the lowest detectable energies. Hyper-Kamiokande will measure neutrino oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos, solar neutrinos, and other cosmic neutrinos. These measurements are in addition to accelerator beam measurements. The motivation for also pursuing these “natural” cosmic neutrinos remains strong, as they will significantly contribute to the determination of the “mass ordering” of neutrinos and support and complement CP-violation searches and other beam-related neutrino measurements. Given enough running time, the detection of a neutrino burst from a core-collapse galactic supernova is assured. Such a burst will consist of tens of thousands of neutrino interactions within about ten seconds. Not only will the neutrino energy spectra, time distribution, and flavor composition directly give access to the explosion mechanism and other astrophysical data, but will also explore neutrino properties that cannot be studied any other way: in particular, neutrino-neutrino interactions may play a role. This will test the standard model of particle interactions in regimes otherwise inaccessible. Hyper-Kamiokande promises to give cosmic insights substantially advanced from our current understanding.The award is aligned with the NSF Big Idea of Windows on the Universe: the Era of Multi-messenger Astrophysics as it coordinates the use of multi-messengers observations utilizing cosmic neutrinos and providing alerts to the larger community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Hyper-Kamiokande 是一种粒子物理探测器，建于日本飞驒市神冈矿井地下 600m 处。该探测器由一个直径 68m、高 71m 的水箱组成，水箱周围有 20,000 个直径 50cm 的光电传感器，可检测穿过水面的颗粒的光发射。其主要目的是研究中微子，即不带电荷的基本粒子，仅与探测器材料发生微弱相互作用，因此需要较大的探测器质量。超级神冈探测器的质量为 260,000 吨，使其成为迄今为止建造的同类探测器中最大的：超级神冈探测器可用于中微子测量的目标质量将是其前身超级神冈探测器等效质量的十倍以上。 Hyper-Kamiokande 将观测来自各种自然和人造来源的宽能量范围的中微子，例如天体物理中微子（例如来自太阳或称为超新星的恒星爆炸）、大气中微子，以及来自 295 公里外粒子加速器产生的束流的中微子。中微子是理解天体物理现象的理想信使，因为它们不受电磁力的影响。因此，超级神冈探测器将作为天体物理中微子观测站，但它也将研究中微子粒子本身的性质，并寻找极其罕见的质子（或中子）衰变。该项目的重点是天体物理中微子，包括可能带来新发现的低能量中微子。 参与大学内包含的大量针对 K-12 学生和本科生的活动将为这些学生提供参与涉及广泛国际合作的世界级实验的机会。为了实现超级神冈探测器的天体物理潜力，该项目将重点致力于优化中微子相互作用的触发、校准和重建，特别是在可检测的最低能量下。超级神冈探测器将测量大气中微子、太阳中微子和其他宇宙中微子的中微子振荡。这些测量是加速器束测量的补充。追求这些“自然”宇宙中微子的动机仍然很强烈，因为它们将极大地有助于确定中微子的“质量排序”，并支持和补充CP破坏搜索和其他与束流相关的中微子测量。只要有足够的运行时间，就可以确保检测到核心塌陷的银河超新星中微子爆发。这样的爆发将在大约十秒内由数以万计的中微子相互作用组成。中微子能谱、时间分布和味道成分不仅可以直接获取爆炸机制和其他天体物理数据，而且还将探索无法通过任何其他方式研究的中微子特性：特别是中微子-中微子相互作用可能发挥作用。这将测试其他方式无法访问的粒子相互作用的标准模型。 Hyper-Kamiokande 承诺提供比我们目前的理解大大先进的宇宙见解。该奖项与 NSF 的“宇宙之窗：多信使天体物理学时代”的大理念相一致，因为它协调利用宇宙中微子的多信使观测的使用，并向更大的社区提供警报。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为是值得的 通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来提供支持。