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现象和天体物理学的理想选择。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。一个有效的新进展的工具是比较太阳的亮度分别由中微子和光子测量，这可以揭示中微子物理学和天体物理学中的惊喜。只有探测到低能（2兆电子伏特）的太阳中微子才有可能精确测量太阳的中微子衍生的光度，这些中微子包含99.9%的通量。面对实时低能中微子探测的实验挑战，铟基低能太阳中微子光谱仪（LENS）是为数不多的解决方案之一。它将独特地提供一个几乎无背景的太阳中微子的完整光谱图像，使用基于电荷电流的中微子探测，具有强大的空间和时间巧合标签。该奖项将提供资金，通过一个相对便宜的原型——Mini-LENS——在LENS长度尺度的15%（体积的1/300）上测试LENS的概念和技术的各个方面，目标是提供技术性能的可靠表征。对科学、技术和教育的广泛影响包括：学生和博士后的参与，为好奇心和想象力驱动的研究提供了机会和渠道，通过模拟、化学处理和数据采集系统来理解世界的物理。学生将获得使用最先进仪器的宝贵实践经验。方便地进入金伯顿的地下实验室，为地下研究的复杂性提供了出色的培训。mini-LENS技术向其他领域延伸，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.