The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a 1000 tonne heavy water Cherenkov detector under construction in INCO's Creighton mine near Sudbury, Ontario. Located 6800 feet below ground, SNO is designed to detect neutrinos produced by fusion reactions in the sun. SNO will provide revolutionary insight into the properties of neutrinos, as well as yielding constraints on reaction mechanisms in the sun. The SNO detector uses 1000 tonnes of heavy water, on loan from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), contained in a 12m diameter acrylic vessel. Neutrinos react with the heavy water (D2O) to produce flashes of light called Cherenkov radiation. This light is then detected with a geodesic array of 10,000 photomultiplier tubes surrounding the heavy water vessel. The detector is immersed in light (normal) water within a 30m barrel-shaped cavity excavated from Norite rock. Location in the deepest part of the mine provides an overburden of rock to shield from cosmic rays. The detector laboratory is immensely clean to reduce background radiation signals which would otherwise hide the very weak signal from neutrinos. The laboratory is now in the final stages of construction and will begin water fill and data taking in the Fall of 1997.

More information:

• Description of the SNO detector
• SNO Detector Technical Specifications
• Neutrinos and the Solar Neutrino Problem
• SNO Publicity (construction milestones, photographs, newspaper articles, TV etc.)
• The SNO Collaboration
• Participating Institutions and Funding Sources
• New positions/postdocs within SNO
• Other Neutrino Experiments and HEP Servers
• Other Useful or Interesting Links
• SNO Information/Resources (Access Restricted)
• French Language Information

Last Minute Information:

• There is a SNO update on April 18th 7pm on the Discovery Channel
• The acrylic 103 panel ring is now completed (April 1997).
• Now bonding the second ring 105 below the equator (May 1997).

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Institute (SNOI):

Director:

A.B. McDonald

For general information email: snoinfo@neutrino.phys.laurentian.ca

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Last revised May 6th, 1997
(Mail problems/other comments to ford@mips2.phy.queensu.ca)

URL:http://snodaq.phy.queensu.ca/SNO/sno.html