3 ms·

Is it just ice? I thought most neutrino detectors were large underground pools of water. I mean ... tomāto/tomăto, yes, but is solid water better than liquid wa

• chris_va 5mo ago
  The size of the detector can be very large, stable, and protected with an ice cap. https://icecube.wisc.edu/science/icecube/ https://icecube.wisc.edu/science/icecube/ There aren't a lot of places with multiple km of water without things like animal life or other confounders.
  • NoSalt 5mo ago
    So, [controlled] liquid water is better but [controlled] solid water is more abundant?
    • chris_va 5mo ago
      I wouldn't say liquid is "better". The neutrinos don't care from a cross section standpoint. Uniformity of the light field is going to be different, but that is not my sub-domain.
      • cozzyd 5mo ago
        A liquid you control (and can densely instrument) is going to be a much easier to characterize detector than large volumes of natural material
      • _0ffh 5mo ago
        Wouldn't the higher density of liquid water be an advantage?
        • cozzyd 5mo ago
          It's quite a minor difference
• cozzyd 5mo ago
  Depends on the energy scale involved! Higher energy = "easier" to detect (produce more light or radio emission), but the events are rarer so you want to build a bigger detector. There are also underwater pools of water being used :) (KM3Net,P-ONE, Baikal-GVD, etc.)
• cozzyd 5mo ago
  For radio detection, solid water is better because it has a much much longer radio attenuation length.