Physics Monitor
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Physics monitor The temperature of the incandescent gas Electromagnetic energy (photons) from nu (mainly hydrogen) ball of the Sun ranges clear reactions deep inside the Sun can take from 6000 degrees at the surface to 15 mil millions of years to migrate to the surface lion degrees at its centre, where proton and escape. Neutrinos on the other hand nuclei fuse together into deuterium, liberat give a unique glimpse deep into the Sun's in ing a positron and a neutrino. Subsequently terior, but the interpretation requires a repre other reactions produce additional neutrinos, sentative sample of these elusive particles. but most solar neutrinos emanate from the central fusion process. NEUTRINOS Moriond spotlight The regular 'Rencontres de Mo riond' meetings in the French Alps, which celebrate their 25th anniver sary this year, have a strong tradi tion of reflecting new trends in physics thinking and January's ses sion on Tests of Fundamental Laws in Physics' was no exception. The spotlight this time fell on the neutrino sector, a branch of phy sics frequently in evolution, if not controversial. Currently the solar neutrino problem is still a preoccu pation, while a wave of new heavy neutrino results also awaits clarifi cation. The Moriond neutrino sessions began with a review by D.Vignaud of the status of the 'solar neutrino problem' - the discrepancy be tween theoretical predictions (based on solar model calculations) and the experimentally observed chemical method had to be devel mately 6 x 1010 per sq cm per s. fluxes of neutrinos from the Sun. oped to extract and detect the pre The predicted value of the bor So far solar neutrinos have been cious few unstable argon-37 atoms on-8 neutrino flux is extremely sen detected in two experiments: the (half-life 35 days) produced by the sitive to the temperature in the pioneer study led by Ray Davis, solar neutrinos during exposures Sun's core where these neutrinos which began data-taking in 1970 ranging typically from 35 to 60 are thought to be produced. and continues to run, and the Kam- days. Approximately 14 per cent of iokande II collaboration, operational The Kamiokande II collaboration the argon-37 production rate seen in Japan since 1987. looks for Cherenkov radiation from by Davis' team is predicted to be The former uses the chlorine- neutrino interactions in a tank con due to monochromatic 0.86 MeV 37/argon-37 radiochemical method taining 3000 tons of water, of neutrinos produced with lithium-7 for detecting solar neutrinos, sug which only 680 tons are used for by electron capture in solar beryl- gested in 1946 by Bruno Pontecor- solar neutrino detection. The de lium-7. vo and somewhat later indepen tector is presently capable of regis The solar-neutrino-induced event dently by Luis Alvarez. Neutrino tering solar neutrinos above 7.5 rates observed by Davis' team and capture in chlorine-37 has a thre MeV. Kamiokande II are typically several shold energy of 0.816 MeV. Davis' Both studies register neutrinos times smaller than predictions team uses a tank filled with 615 supposedly emitted in the decay of based on detailed solar model cal tons of perchloroethylene, and the boron-8 with energies up to 14 culations. Estimates of the uncer observed average rate of argon-37 MeV. According to current wis tainties in these calculations indi production over 20 years is ap dom, boron-8 neutrinos are only a cate that the discrepancy between proximately one atom every two small fraction (one in ten thousand) the predicted and the observed ev days. of the total flux of solar neutrinos ent rates could actually be smaller. A remarkably efficient radio- on the Earth's surface - approxi It was suggested in 1982 by 16 CERN Courier, May 1991 CERH COURIER A unique advertising medium for scientific and technical equipment CERN COURIER is the internationally recognized news magazine of high energy physics. Distributed to all the major Laboratories of the world active in this dynamic field of fundamental research, it is compulsive reading for scientists, engineers, ad ministrators, information media and buyers. Writ ten in simple language and published simul taneously in English and French it has become the natural communication medium for particle physi cists in Europe, the USA, the Soviet Union, Ja pan— everywhere where the fundamental nature of matter is studied. Published from CERN, Switzerland, it also has correspondents in the Laboratories of Argonne, DELAY LINES Berkeley, Brookhaven, Cornell, Fermi, Los Alamos and Stanford in the USA, Darmstadt, DESY and -passiv lumped constant versions Karlsruhe in Germany, Orsay and Saclay in France, SIP 7; DIP* 8, DIP 14; DIP 24 Frascati in Italy, Rutherford in the U. K., PSI in Swit 1 Tap up to 20 Taps zerland, Serpukhov, Dubna and Novosibirsk in the few ns up to 2400ns USSR, KEK in Japan, TRIUMF in Canada and Beijing in China. -active INPUT/OUTPUT buffered TTL-Shottky is standard besides we offer all new low power and The annual expenditure on high energy physics in fast rising technologies as: Europe is about 1600 million Swiss francs. The FAST-LOGIC; HC AND HCT; expenditure in the USA is about $ 800 million. There is also considerable expenditure in the Soviet AC AND ACT Delay Lines Union. PULSE TRANSFORM PRODUCTS CERN COURIER is the way into all high energy -MIL-Std.-A 1553 physics research Laboratories. If you have a market •3270 Interfaces and others in this field, there is no surer way to make your products known than by advertising in CERN COURIER. DC/DC CONVERTERS isolated; regulated; single- All enquiries to: dual- and multi OUTPUTS standard and WIDE INPUT RANGE Europe Rest of the world 1:2 and 1:4 e.g. 18-72V Advertising Manager Yvette M. Perez ambient temp. -40 to 85°C while Micheline Falciola Gordon and Breach Science Publishers none derating CERN COURIER Frankford Arsenal, Bldg 110 CERN 5301 Tacony Street, Box 330 CH-1211 GENEVA 23 PHILADELPHIA, 19137 Joaef-Schober-StraBe 5 Tel. (022) 767 41 03 Tel.: +1 (215) 537 72 62 D-8910 Landsberfl Telex 419 000 CER Fax: +1 (215) 537 07 11 ELECTRDPiiC GmbH Tel. 08191 /2056, Fax 2029 Telefax (022) 782 19 06 18 CERN Courier, May 1991 The solar neutrino flux (compared with the predictions of the Standard Solar Model - SSM) as seen by the Kamiokande II detector in Japan shows no appreciable time vari ation. Some hypotheses call for the solar neutrino signal to be linked with the sunspot cycle. gy balance, their flux can be calcu lated more accurately than that of boron-8 neutrinos. The theoretically predicted gal- lium-71/germanium-71 conversion rate in SAGE and Gallex due to so lar neutrinos is approximately one atom per day, requiring the perfec tion of very efficient techniques to extract and detect the few german- ium-71 atoms produced in the 30 ton detectors during typical expo sures of 20-30 days. Results from the first five phy sics runs of the SAGE collabora tion, which took place between January and July last year, were presented at the Workshop by V. Gavrin. The observed rate of ger- manium-71 formation was found to be slightly above that expected due to background processes, with an upper limit of 74 SNU (each Solar Neutrino Unit - SNU - represents G.A. Bazilevskaya et al. that the viet-American Gallium Experiment 10~36 solar neutrino captures per solar neutrino flux detected by Dav in the Baksan Neutrino Observatory second per atom of target), smaller is' team varies in time, being - June 1990, page 16) and Gallex than the theoretically predicted rate (anti)correlated* with the solar activ (built by a collaboration of scien of 132 SNU. (The contributions ity. A measure of the Sun's activity tists from France, Germany, Israel, due to proton fusion, beryllium-7 is the number of sunspots on its Italy and the US and installed in the and boron-8 neutrinos in the calcu surface, in turn related to the Italian Gran Sasso Laboratory, Jan lated rate are 71, 34 and 14 SNU, strength of the toroidal component uary/February, page 10). respectively.) of the solar magnetic field. The lat Rather than looking at a remote A crucial step in the interpreta ter is known to vary over a 11-year fringe of the solar neutrino spec tion of these results will be half-cycle, the last two maxima of trum, the major aim of these two measurements of germanium-71 the sunspot number having been in experiments is to detect the major produced by neutrinos from a cali 1979-1980 and in 1989-1990. portion of the solar neutrinos - brated source. D. Vignaud presented the results those accompanying proton fusion A status report of the Gallex ex of four independent statistical ana into deuterium, with a maximal en periment was given by D. Vignaud. lyses of data from Davis' team, all ergy of 0.42 MeV. This fusion is Here data-taking is not possible for reporting evidence for (anti)corre- the first of a series of reactions ev the time being because of contami lation, although at very different entually producing helium-4 and nation of the detector by an unex levels of statistical significance. providing more than 98 per cent of pectedly large amount of radioac The results of the Kamiokande II the Sun's energy. tive germanium-68. This isotope collaboration on possible variation Measurements of this part of the was probably produced when the of the solar neutrino flux from solar neutrino flux would test basic gallium-71 source material for the 1987-1990, presented by Y.