Solar Neutrinos

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

PROPOSAL NUMBER: 0802114 INSTITUTION: VA Polytechnic Inst & St U NSF PROGRAM: PHY - NUCLEAR ASTROPHYSICS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Vogelaar, Robert B. TITLE: Solar Neutrinos ABSTRACT This award provides funding for the Virginia Tech group to continue their participation in the Borexino experiment at the Gran Sasso underground lab in Italy. Experiments with solar neutrinos gave the first evidence for neutrino mass and mixing. The Borexino experiment has recently made the first real-time measurement of the flux of low energy solar neutrinos from 7Be. The result is consistent with predictions of Standard Solar Models and neutrino oscillations. The group plans to address the full utilization of the calibration system, participation in data acquisition and analysis, and the implications of anticipated Borexino results. With better purity and calibration now achieved, the potential for measuring the CNO and pep solar neutrino fluxes in Borexino is now realistic. The broader impact on science, technology and outreach that is expected from the program includes deployment and utilization of ultra-clean calibration techniques and creating the possibility that, for the first time, one might directly measure the Sun?s energy generation today, versus what is currently seen in the photosphere after a delay of about 50,000 years. The outreach is to astrophysicists, cosmologists, geophysicists and geochemists, chemists and chemical engineers, teachers and students in universities in Virginia and neighboring states and the international scientific community.