Soudan 2 was a
particle detector
In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nu ...
located in the
Soudan Mine in Northern Minnesota, United States, that operated from 1989 to 2001. It was a 960-ton iron tracking
calorimeter
A calorimeter is an object used for calorimetry, or the process of measuring the heat of chemical reactions or physical changes as well as heat capacity. Differential scanning calorimeters, isothermal micro calorimeters, titration calorimete ...
whose primary purpose was to search for
proton decay
In particle physics, proton decay is a hypothetical form of particle decay in which the proton decays into lighter subatomic particles, such as a neutral pion and a positron. The proton decay hypothesis was first formulated by Andrei Sakharov ...
, although its data was also used to investigate the properties of
neutrinos
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is ...
. It found no evidence of proton decay, but it did help confirm
Super-Kamiokande
Super-Kamiokande (abbreviation of Super-Kamioka Neutrino Detection Experiment, also abbreviated to Super-K or SK; ja, スーパーカミオカンデ) is a Neutrino detector, neutrino observatory located Kamioka Observatory, under Mount Ikeno ...
's atmospheric neutrino result, supporting the theory of
neutrino oscillation.
The Soudan Mine is also home to the
MINOS and
CDMS detectors.
History
Soudan 2 was the successor to the
Soudan 1, a similar 30 ton detector also intended to search for proton decay.
The excavation for Soudan 2 was done in 1984–1985. Installation was started in 1986 and was completed in 1993. The experiment was run from April 1989 to June 2001, beginning with a partial detector of 275 tons.
[http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/experiments/www2?expt=SOUDAN "Results From The Soudan Prototype Proton Decay Experiment",
John Eric Bartelt (]University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
). UMI-84-13752, Mar 1984.
Ph. D. Thesis. It was disassembled in 2005 to make room for further low
background
Background may refer to:
Performing arts and stagecraft
* Background actor
* Background artist
* Background light
* Background music
* Background story
* Background vocals
* ''Background'' (play), a 1950 play by Warren Chetham-Strode
Record ...
physics experiments, including
MINOS.
External links
The University of Minnesota's Soudan 2 page*
ttps://inspirehep.net/experiments/1109400 SOUDAN-2 experimentrecord on
INSPIRE-HEP
References
{{Proton decay experiments
Particle experiments