SNOLAB 2014-03-21.jpg
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

SNOLAB is a Canadian underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. Located 2 km below the surface in
Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipali ...
's Creighton nickel
mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...
near
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...
, Ontario, SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities constructed for the original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment. SNOLAB is the world's deepest operational clean room facility. Although accessed through an active mine, the laboratory proper is maintained as a class-2000 cleanroom, with very low levels of dust and
background radiation Background radiation is a measure of the level of ionizing radiation present in the environment at a particular location which is not due to deliberate introduction of radiation sources. Background radiation originates from a variety of sources ...
. SNOLAB's 2070 m (6800 feet) of overburden rock provides 6010
metre water equivalent In physics, the meter water equivalent (often ''m.w.e.'' or ''mwe'') is a standard measure of cosmic ray attenuation in underground laboratories. A laboratory at a depth of 1000 m.w.e is shielded from cosmic rays equivalently to a lab below the sur ...
(MWE) shielding from cosmic rays, providing a low-background environment for experiments requiring high
sensitivities Sensitivity may refer to: Science and technology Natural sciences * Sensitivity (physiology), the ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli ** Sensory processing sensitivity in humans * Sensitivity and specificity, statistica ...
and extremely low counting The combination of great depth and cleanliness that SNOLAB affords allows extremely rare interactions and weak processes to be studied. In addition to neutrino and dark matter physics, SNOLAB is also host to biological experiments in an underground environment.


History

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory was the world's deepest underground experiment since the Kolar Gold Fields experiments ended with the closing of that mine in 1992. With the deepest underground laboratory in North America at 2100 
metre water equivalent In physics, the meter water equivalent (often ''m.w.e.'' or ''mwe'') is a standard measure of cosmic ray attenuation in underground laboratories. A laboratory at a depth of 1000 m.w.e is shielded from cosmic rays equivalently to a lab below the sur ...
depth, and the deepest in the world at 4800 MWE, many other groups were interested in conducting experiments in the 6000 MWE location. In 2002, funding was approved by the
Canada Foundation for Innovation The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI; french: Fondation canadienne pour l'innovation, ''FCI'') is an independent not-for-profit organization that invests in research facilities and equipment in Canada's universities, colleges, research hospital ...
to expand the SNO facilities into a general-purpose laboratory, and more funding was received in 2007 and 2008. Construction of the major laboratory space was completed in 2009, with the entire lab entering operation as a 'clean' space in March 2011. SNOLAB is the world's deepest underground laboratory, tied with the China Jinping Underground Laboratory since 2011. Although CJPL has more rock (2.4 km) above it, the effective depth for science purposes is determined by the cosmic ray muon flux, and CJPL's mountain location admits more muons from the side than SNOLAB's flat overburden. The measured muon fluxes are () at SNOLAB, and () at CJPL, tied to within the measurement uncertainty. (For comparison, the rate on the surface, at sea level, is about 15 million μ/m²/day.) CJPL does have the advantage of fewer radioisotopes in the surrounding rock.


Experiments

, SNOLAB hosts the following experiments:SNOLAB: Current experiments
/ref>


Neutrino detectors

*
SNO+ SNO+ is a physics experiment designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay, with secondary measurements of proton–electron–proton (''pep'') solar neutrinos, geoneutrinos from radioactive decays in the Earth, and reactor neutrinos. It ...
is a neutrino experiment using the original SNO experiment chamber, but using liquid scintillator in the place of heavy water from SNO.
Linear alkyl benzene Linear alkylbenzenes (sometimes also known as LABs) are a family of organic compounds with the formula C6H5CnH2n+1. Typically, ''n'' lies between 10 and 16, although generally supplied as a tighter cut, such as C12-C15, C12-C13 and C10-C13, for de ...
, the scintillator, increases the light yield, and therefore the sensitivity, allowing SNO+ to detect not only solar neutrinos, but also geoneutrinos, and reactor neutrinos. The ultimate goal of SNO+ is to observe neutrinoless double beta decay (0vbb). * HALO (
Helium and Lead Observatory The Helium And Lead Observatory (HALO) is a neutrino detector at SNOLab for the Supernova Early Warning System (SNEWS). It began engineering operation on May 8, 2012, and joined as an operational part of SNEWS in October 2015. It was designed to ...
) is a neutron detector using ring-shaped lead blocks to detect neutrinos from
supernovae A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...
within our galaxy. HALO is part of the Supernova Early Warning System (SNEWS), an international collaboration of neutrino-sensitive detectors that will allow astronomers the opportunity to observe the first photons visible following a core-collapse supernova.


Dark matter detectors

* DAMIC - Dark Matter in Charged Coupled Devices ( CCDs) – a dark matter detector using unusually thick CCDs to take long exposure images of particles passing through the detector. Various particles have known signatures and DAMIC seeks to find something new that could signal dark matter particles. * DEAP-3600 - Dark Matter Experiment using Argon Pulse-shape Discrimination - is a second generation dark matter detector, using 3600 kg of liquid argon. This experiment aims to detect
WIMP Wimp, WIMP, or Wimps may refer to: Science and technology * Weakly interacting massive particle, a hypothetical particle of dark matter * WIMP (computing), the "window, icon, menu, pointer" paradigm * WIMP (software bundle), the web stack of Wind ...
-like dark matter particles through argon scintillation, or small amounts of light detected by extremely sensitive
photomultiplier tubes Photomultiplier tubes (photomultipliers or PMTs for short) are extremely sensitive detectors of light in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. They are members of the class of vacuum tubes, more speci ...
. * The PICO 40L, a third generation bubble chamber dark matter search experiment, is a merger of the former
PICASSO Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and COUPP collaborations. PICO operates using superheated fluids which form small bubbles when energy is deposited by particle interactions. These bubbles are then detected by high speed cameras and extremely sensitive microphones.


Biological experiments

* FLAME – Flies in A Mine Experiment – a biological experiment using fruit flies as a model organism to investigate the physical responses to working in increased atmospheric pressure underground. * REPAIR – Researching the Effects of the Presence and Absence of Ionizing Radiation – a biological experiment investigating the effects of low background radiation on growth, development, and cellular repair mechanisms.


Projects under construction

* SuperCDMS - Super-Cryogenic Dark Matter Search - is a second generation dark matter detector using silicon and germanium crystals cooled down to 10 mK, a fraction of a degree above
absolute zero Absolute zero is the lowest limit of the thermodynamic temperature scale, a state at which the enthalpy and entropy of a cooled ideal gas reach their minimum value, taken as zero kelvin. The fundamental particles of nature have minimum vibration ...
. This experiment aims to detect low mass dark matter particles through very small energy deposition in the crystal from particle collisions, resulting in vibrations detected by sensors. *NEWS-G - New Experiments with Spheres–Gas – is a second generation spherical proportional counter electrostatic dark matter detector using noble gases in their gaseous state, as opposed to liquid noble gases used in DEAP-3600 and miniCLEAN. The original NEWS experiment is at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane.


Decommissioned experiments

* The original heavy water based Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment, * The
POLARIS Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...
underground project at SNOLAB (PUPS), observing seismic signals at depth in very
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
, * The first-generation COUPP 4-kg bubble chamber dark matter search, is no longer in operation."The old COUPP detector using bubble chamber technology to search for dark matter. It is not running right now because they have a bigger detector to assemble and play with!"
(2013-01-18)
* The DEAP-1 dark matter search, and * The
PICASSO Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
dark matter search. * MiniCLEAN ( Cryogenic Low-Energy Astrophysics with Noble gases) dark matter detector,


Future projects

Additional planned experiments have requested laboratory space such as the next-generation nEXO, and the
COBRA Experiment The Cadmium Zinc Telluride 0-Neutrino Double-Beta (COBRA) experiment is a large array of cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) semiconductors searching for evidence of neutrinoless double beta decay and to measure its half-life. COBRA is located undergr ...
searches for neutrinoless double beta decay. There are also plans for a larger PICO-500L detector. The total size of the SNOLAB underground facilities, including utility spaces and personnel spaces, is:


References


External links


SNOLAB website

SNOLAB french presentations
* * * * {{Dark matter Underground laboratories Experiments for dark matter search Neutrino observatories Laboratories in Canada Scientific organizations based in Canada 2011 establishments in Ontario Research institutes established in 2011