Physics Department Colloquia |
Events During the Week of March 22nd through March 29th, 2015
Monday, March 23rd, 2015
- No events scheduled
Tuesday, March 24th, 2015
- No events scheduled
Wednesday, March 25th, 2015
- No events scheduled
Thursday, March 26th, 2015
- No events scheduled
Friday, March 27th, 2015
- The present and future of solar neutrinos with Borexino
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 4:30 pm)
- Speaker: Andrea Pocar, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Abstract: Borexino is a large, low-energy neutrino experiment that has been running since 2007 at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy. It is the only running detector potentially sensitive to the entire solar neutrino spectrum. It has so far made the first measurement of the Berillium-7 neutrinos, now known with 5% precision, measured the Boron-8 neutrinos with lower energy threshold than previous experiments, and observed pep neutrinos for the first time. More recently, Borexino made the first direct detection of pp neutrinos. These are the most abundant solar neutrinos, yet they have proven very hard to detect due to their low energy and the presence of the Carbon-14 background in organic scintillator. These results will be described in detail, in the context of neutrino and solar physics. The Borexino program for the coming years will also be presented, with particular focus on the hunt for CNO solar neutrinos.
- Host: Justin Vandenbroucke