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ORNL: World’s smallest neutrino detector finds big physics fingerprint

Posted at 9:37 am August 8, 2017
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory Leave a Comment

From left, Professor Yuri Efremenko of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Jason Newby of Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among 80 participants in COHERENT, a large, collaborative, particle physics experiment to record neutrinos at the Spallation Neutron Source. Photomultiplier tubes look like giant light bulbs and are used to detect light from neutrino interactions in detectors. COHERENT’s cesium iodide detector, the first to espy neutrinos at the SNS, employs a 5-inch (13-centimeter) wide photomultiplier tube. An 8-inch (20-centimeter) wide photomultiplier (shown here) is deployed in COHERENT’s nearby liquid-argon detector. Measurements from different types of detectors are necessary for comprehensive studies of neutrinos at SNS. The scientists are standing in front of the cesium-iodide-detector shielding. (Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy; photographer Genevieve Martin)

From left, Professor Yuri Efremenko of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Jason Newby of Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among 80 participants in COHERENT, a large, collaborative, particle physics experiment to record neutrinos at the Spallation Neutron Source. Photomultiplier tubes look like giant light bulbs and are used to detect light from neutrino interactions in detectors. COHERENT’s cesium iodide detector, the first to espy neutrinos at the SNS, employs a five-inch (13-centimeter) wide photomultiplier tube. An eight-inch (20-centimeter) wide photomultiplier (shown here) is deployed in COHERENT’s nearby liquid-argon detector. Measurements from different types of detectors are necessary for comprehensive studies of neutrinos at SNS. The scientists are standing in front of the cesium-iodide-detector shielding. (Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy; photographer Genevieve Martin)

 

By Dawn Levy/ORNL

After more than a year of operation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the COHERENT experiment, using the world’s smallest neutrino detector, has found a big fingerprint of the elusive, electrically neutral particles that interact only weakly with matter.

The research, performed at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and published in the journal Science, provides compelling evidence for a neutrino interaction process predicted by theorists 43 years ago but never seen.

“The one-of-a-kind particle physics experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was the first to measure coherent scattering of low-energy neutrinos off nuclei,” said ORNL physicist Jason Newby, technical coordinator and one of 11 ORNL participants in COHERENT, a collaboration of 80 researchers from 19 institutions and four nations.

The SNS produces neutrons for scientific research and also generates a high flux of neutrinos as a byproduct. Placing the detector at SNS a mere 65 feet (20 meters) from the neutrino source vastly improved the chances of interactions and allowed the researchers to decrease the detector’s weight to just 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms). In comparison, most neutrino detectors weigh thousands of tons: although they are continuously exposed to solar, terrestrial, and atmospheric neutrinos, they need to be massive because the interaction odds are more than 100 times lower than at SNS.

The scientists are the first to detect and characterize coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off nuclei. This long-sought confirmation, predicted in the particle physics Standard Model, measures the process with enough precision to establish constraints on alternative theoretical models. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: cesium iodide detector, cesium iodide scintillator crystal, COHERENT, coherent elastic scattering, coherent scattering, Dawn Levy, DOE Office of Science, Duke University, Jason Newby, Juan Collar, Kate Scholberg, neutrino, neutrino detector, neutrino interaction, nuclei, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering, ORNL, particle physics, science, SNS, Spallation Neutron Source, Standard Model, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Chicago, University of Tennessee, Yuri Efremenko

Synthetic material from ORNL used in discovery of new elements 115, 117

Posted at 10:41 pm January 6, 2016
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

ORNL Berkelium-249

Berkelium-249, contained in the greenish fluid in the tip of the vial, was crucial to the experiment that discovered element 117. It was made in the research reactor at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo by ORNL)

 

Twenty-two milligrams of a very pure synthetic material produced at Oak Ridge National Laboratory were used in the discovery of two new chemical elements that will help fill out the seventh row of the periodic table.

The synthetic element, berkelium-249, was produced in a project that started with a six-month irradiation of a target material at the High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL. The resulting product was separated and processed during a three-month period at the lab’s Radiochemical Engineering Development Center.

The berkelium-249 was then shipped to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, or JINR, in Dubna, Russia, where it was intensely bombarded, or irradiated, with calcium-48 ions, creating six atoms of element 117, said Jim Roberto, ORNL associate lab director for science and technology partnerships. Berkelium-249, which does not exist in nature, has a 300-day lifetime, so researchers had a short time to do their experiments.

Element 117 is one of four new elements that have been officially verified by the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry. The IUPAC announced the discoveries on December 30. The other three are elements 113, 115, and 118. Element 115 is produced when element 117 decays. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: berkelium-249, californium-252, chemical elements, element 113, element 115, element 117, element 118, element 61, Glenn Seaborg, Graphite Reactor, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, High Flux Isotope Reactor, International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC, Jim Roberto, JINR, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, neutrons, new elements, nuclei, nucleus, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, periodic table, promethium, protons, Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, RIKEN, thermal neutron flux, Thom Mason, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Tennessee, UT, Vanderbilt University

ORNL, UT team maps nuclear landscape

Posted at 5:55 pm June 30, 2012
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Nuclear Landscape

This image represents the nuclear landscape, with different isotopes, including dark blue stable isotopes, lighter blue unstable isotopes, and gray bound isotopes. (Image by Andy Sproles at Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

A supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been used to calculate the number of isotopes allowed by the laws of physics.

A team of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee researchers used the Jaguar supercomputer to determine that there are about 7,000 possible combinations of protons and neutrons allowed in bound nuclei with up to 120 protons.

The team’s results are presented in the June 28 issue of the journal Nature.

Most of these nuclei have not been observed experimentally, an ORNL press release said.

“They are bound, meaning they do not spit out protons or neutrons,” team leader Witek Nazarewicz explained in the release. “But they are radioactive—they are short-lived—because there are other processes, such as beta decay, that can give rise to transmutations.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: neutrons, nuclear landscape, nuclei, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, protons, University of Tennessee

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