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: 2309965
• 负责人: John Learned
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 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=2309965&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，位于日本希达市的神冈矿地下600米处。该探测器由一个直径68米、高71米的水箱组成，水箱周围环绕着20，000个直径50厘米的光电传感器，这些光电传感器探测穿过水面的颗粒的光发射。它的主要目的是研究中微子，不带电荷的基本粒子，与探测器材料的相互作用很弱，因此需要一个大的探测器质量。超级神冈的质量为260，000公吨，使其成为迄今为止建造的最大的此类探测器：超级神冈的中微子测量目标质量将是其前身超级神冈的十倍以上。Hyper-Kamiokande将从各种自然和人造来源观察广泛能量范围内的中微子，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公里距离的粒子加速器产生的光束的中微子。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，Hyper-Kamiokande将作为天体物理学中微子观测站，但它也将研究中微子粒子本身的性质，并将搜索质子（或中子）的极其罕见的衰变。该项目的重点是天体物理中微子，包括那些可能导致新发现的较低能量的中微子。 参与计划的大学将针对K-12学生和本科生开展一系列活动，为这些学生提供参与世界级实验的机会，这些实验涉及广泛的国际合作。为了实现Hyper-Kamiokande的天体物理学潜力，该项目将集中精力优化中微子相互作用的触发、校准和重建，特别是在最低可检测能量下。Hyper-Kamiokande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“天然”宇宙中微子的动机仍然很强，因为它们将大大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，就可以保证探测到来自星系超新星核心坍缩的中微子爆发。这样的爆发将在大约10秒内由数万个中微子相互作用组成。中微子的能谱、时间分布和味成分不仅可以直接提供爆炸机制和其他天体物理数据，而且还可以探索中微子的性质，这些性质无法通过其他方式进行研究：特别是中微子-中微子相互作用可能发挥作用。这将检验粒子相互作用的标准模型，否则无法达到的制度。Hyper-Kamiokande承诺从我们目前的理解中提供宇宙洞察力。该奖项与NSF宇宙Windows的大创意一致：多信使天体物理学的时代，因为它协调使用多-利用宇宙中微子进行信使观测，并向更大的社区提供警报。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。