Homestake tracking spectrometer: a one-mile deep 1400-ton liquid-scintillation nucleon-decay detector
We describe a proposed nucleon decay detector able to demonstrate the existence of nucleon decay for lifetimes up to 5 x 10/sup 32/ yr. The proposed instrument is a self-vetoed completely-active 1400-ton liquid scintillation Tracking Spectrometer to be located in the Homestake Mine at a depth of 4200 mwe, where the cosmic ray muon flux is only 1100/m/sup 2//yr, more than 10/sup 7/ times lower than the flux at the earth's surface. Based on computer simulations and laboratory measurements, the Tracking Spectrometer will have a spatial resolution of +- 15 cm (0.32 radiation lengths); energy resolution of +- 4.2%; and time resolution of +-1.3 ns. Because liquid scintillator responds to total ionization energy, all neutrinoless nucleon decay modes will produce a sharp (+- 4.2%) total energy peak at approximately 938 MeV, thereby allowing clear separation of nucleon decay events from atmospheric neutrino and other backgrounds. The instrument will be about equally sensitive to most nucleon decay modes. It will be able to identify most of the likely decay modes (including n ..-->.. ..nu.. + K/sub s//sup 0/ as suggested by supersymmetric grand unified theories), as well as determine the charge of lepton secondaries and the polarization of secondary muons.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 5308736
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-31350; CONF-820466-2; ON: DE82017614; TRN: 82-016379
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 3. workshop on grand unification, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, 15 Apr 1982; Other Information: Portions of document are illegible
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
LIQUID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
DESIGN
PERFORMANCE
NUCLEONS
DECAY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY RESOLUTION
MINES
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
SPECTROMETERS
TIME RESOLUTION
BARYONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
RADIATION DETECTORS
RESOLUTION
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SIMULATION
TIMING PROPERTIES
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
440104* - Radiation Instrumentation- High Energy Physics Instrumentation
440101 - Radiation Instrumentation- General Detectors or Monitors & Radiometric Instruments