4 ms·
The article can be summarized by this line: "Japan is considering building a $1 billion detector called Hyper-Kamiokande, which would be between eight and 17 t
by jeebers 10y ago
The article can be summarized by this line:
"Japan is considering building a $1 billion detector called Hyper-Kamiokande, which would be between eight and 17 times bigger than Super-K and would be sensitive to proton lifetimes of 10^35 years after two decades."
All this to possibly detect a single proton decay in 20 years. Now that's some serious commitment!
- sanxiyn 10y agoIf it were solely to detect proton decay, yes, I agree it would be very impressive. The reality is a bit more prosaic though, as the article suggests in passing: "In the meantime, a Nobel Prize has been won for a different discovery in the cathedral-esque water tank pertaining to particles called neutrinos." Hyper-K is a dual-purpose detector, a neutrino detector as well as a proton decay detector. Substantial part of Hyper-K funding should be interpreted as investment to a neutrino detector.