3 ms·
They can infer the momentum of a detected neutrino from the detector data, which lets them statistically distinguish neutrinos coming from the beam they control
by danharaj 9y ago
They can infer the momentum of a detected neutrino from the detector data, which lets them statistically distinguish neutrinos coming from the beam they control (controlled direction and energy) from background noise (e.g. neutrinos from the sun).
- ianai 9y agoThey’re also talking about low numbers. It’s bad for statistical noise but helps to distinguish generated from background.
- scotty79 9y agoWhat about neutrinos from outside of the solar system?
- danharaj 9y agoI don't know what biases there are in the distribution of such neutrinos, but the basic idea still holds, which is that they have a specific source of neutrinos they're looking out for and neutrinos of other origins will only look like they're from that source very seldom. They can infer the origin of the neutrinos based on the direction from which they entered the detector and how energetic they are.
- scotty79 9y agoI highly doubt they can rule out other sources with total observations counted in single or double digits especially that they can detect just one in bazzzilion of neutrinos that go through the detector. But I guess you are right. I just read that in case of some more energetic neutrinos interaction can create electron muon or tau dependant on neutrino flavor.
- raattgift 9y agoThe Super-Kamiokande detector is useful for neutrino detections generally, and they calibrate it from time to time using various devices, and have been for decades (!). https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ex/9807027v1 https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ex/9807027v1 [1998] The T2K experiment is in a way essentially another calibration system. It of course has its own overview page at http://t2k-experiment.org/t2k/ http://t2k-experiment.org/t2k/