Methods of Particle Detection for Neutrinos in Particle Physics

[Pseudo Epsilon]

hi all, i have done research and know the basic ones but could you guys please list all the methods of particle detection (especialy ones that detect neutrinos) that you know of I am learning particle physics and this would really help me.

 

[phinds]

hi all, i have done research and know the basic ones but could you guys please list all the methods of particle detection (especialy ones that detect neutrinos) that you know of I am learning particle physics and this would really help me.

Since you've done some research, how about you list the ones you know so we'll know what to fill in?

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

cherenkov, cloud. And i know of zeus but not how it works yet.

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

i just want a list of names so i can research them. Thanks in advance if anyone complies.

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

and spark, drift and scintilation devices. Its mainly the solid state ones id like listed.

 

[jtbell]

A simple Google search on "particle detectors" led me straight to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_detector

Seems to be a fairly comprehensive list.

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

arnt there more than those? I've already looked at the wiki.

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

and mainly, how are neutral particles detected?

 

[jtbell]

Indirectly, through collisions with other particles, and studying the (charged) particles that emerge. See for example the bubble chamber picture in the "Neutrinos" section of this page:

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec22.html

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

thanks, any other methods of neutral particle detection aside from cloud chambers?

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

and if neutrinos can pass through millions of km of lead how can we be sure that they will interact with the proton?

 

[mfb]

We cannot be sure. Just a tiny fraction (like 10^-15, plus minus some orders of magnitude) of all neutrinos are detected in neutrino detectors. Those detectors need a large volume and large particle fluxes to see anything.

 

[jtbell]

Also, higher-energy neutrinos are more likely to interact (the cross-section increases linearly with energy), so it's easier to study neutrinos produced at an accelerator (10s or 100s of GeV) than solar neutrinos (a few MeV).

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

what acelerator collisions produce neutrinos?

 

[jtbell]

From http://lbne.fnal.gov/neutrino-beam.shtml:

The processs start by extracting a proton beam from an accelerator complex and smashing the protons into a target. The protons' interactions with the protons and neutrons in the target material produce new, short-lived particles such as pions and kaons. These particles travel a short distance (about 200 m) through a "decay pipe," and as they do, a good fraction of them decays into neutrinos that continue on in the same direction, forming a neutrino beam. Of the three known neutrino types, a beam produced in this manner contains mostly muon neutrinos.

Following the decay pipe, the beam passes through a lot of solid material (metal, rocks, etc.) that absorbs the other decay products, leaving only the neutrinos.

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

what target is used and what energy protons? I know I am nitpicking sorry.

 

[jtbell]

In the setup described above, you want a target that's not too dense, so it doesn't absorb the kaons and pions before they can enter the decay pipe; but you want it to be dense enough to produce a decent number of proton interactions.

When I was a grad student working with a neutrino experiment there more than 30 years ago, they used an aluminum target. Here's a description of that old setup, from my dissertation:

Figure 8.1 shows the FNAL accelerator, experimental areas, and neutrino beam line. Protons with an energy of 400 GeV, from the main ring of the FNAL proton synchrotron, strike an aluminum target and produce a shower of hadrons, most of which are pions and kaons. These pass through a double-horn focusing device, in which a toroidal magnetic field defocuses the positive hadrons and focuses the negative ones into a 350-meter-long evacuated decay pipe. Here some of the hadrons decay into neutrinos and leptons before reaching an iron and Earth shield which absorbs the rest. Although the hadrons can be absorbed quickly via the strong interaction, the muons which are produced along with the neutrinos lose energy much more slowly, mainly via ionization. Hence, the shield extends for 1000m in order to eliminate virtually all the muons. At the end of the shield the beam contains mostly ##{\bar \nu}_\mu## from the dominant decay modes of the positive hadrons in the decay pipe, with a slight contamination of ##\nu_\mu##, ##{\bar \nu}_e## and ##\nu_e##.

I see the current MINOS experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MINOS uses a 120-GeV proton beam and a graphite target.

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

thank you jtbell.