Hyper-Kamiokande
Hyper-Kamiokande is a neutrino observatory being constructed on the site of the Kamioka Observatory, near Kamioka, Japan.
The project started in 2010 as a successor to Super-Kamiokande. It was ranked as among the 28 top priority projects of the Japanese government. Thirteen countries from three continents are involved in this program.[1]
Construction was given final approval on 13 December 2019.[2] Mass production of the photomultiplier tube detectors began in 2021.[3] Construction of the access tunnel was completed on February 25, 2022.[4] The beginning of data-taking is planned for 2027.[5]
Hyper-Kamiokande will have a tank with a billion litres of ultrapure water (UPW), 20 times larger than the tank for Super-Kamiokande.[6] This increased capacity will be accompanied by a proportional increase in the number of sensors. The tank for Hyper-Kamiokande will be a cylinder 71 meters tall with 68 meter diameter,[7] and buried 650 meters deep[8] to reduce interference from cosmic radiation.
Among the scientific objectives will be the search for proton decays.[2][9] Super-Kamiokande put a lower bound on the proton's half life of around 1034 years, which is enough to rule out some Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) such as SU(5); Hyper-Kamiokande will allow for a lower bound of around 1035, enabling other GUT candidates to be tested.[2][9]
Bibliography
- Di Lodovico, Francesca (2017). "The Hyper-Kamiokande Experiment". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 888 (1): 012020. Bibcode:2017JPhCS.888a2020D. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/888/1/012020.
- Normile, D (2015). "Particle physics. Japanese neutrino physicists think really big". Science. 347 (6222): 598. doi:10.1126/science.347.6222.598. PMID 25657225.
References
- Normile 2015.
- Castelvecchi, Davide (2019). "Japan will build the world's largest neutrino detector". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03874-w. PMID 33318697. S2CID 214355319.
- Itow, on behalf of the Hyper-Kamiokande Collaboration, Y. (2021). "Construction status and prospects of the Hyper-Kamiokande project". POS Volume 395 - 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021). Proceedings of Science: 1192. doi:10.22323/1.395.1192. S2CID 199687331.
- "The excavation of the access tunnel has been completed". Hyper-Kamiokande--latest news. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- "The Hyper-Kamiokande project is officially approved". 12 February 2020.
- Hyper-Kamiokande Collaboration (28 November 2018). "Hyper-Kamiokande Design Report". arXiv:1805.04163 [physics.ins-det].
- "Overview". Hyper-Kamiokande. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
- "Japan decides to build next underground neutrino detector - The Mainichi". Archived from the original on 2019-08-21.
- "Proton Decay Searches: Hyper-Kamiokande". www.hyper-k.org. Retrieved 22 September 2020.