Neutrino Events Detected for First Time in T2K Experiment
Physicists from the T2K neutrino collaboration announced today that they have detected the first events generated by the neutrino beam at the J-PARC accelerator laboratory in Tokai, Japan. This detection marks the beginning of the operational phase of the T2K experiment, a ~500 physicist, 12-nation collaboration to measure new properties of the ghostly neutrino.
From the inception of the T2K project, collaborators from the University of Rochester, led by Professors Steve Manly and Kevin McFarland and Senior Researcher Howard Budd, have been working on the design of the "near" detectors in which the neutrinos were observed. The University of Rochester scientists collaborated with other US researchers on the construction and commissioning of the Pi-Zero Detector, known as P0D, which studies processes that could create experimental backgrounds in the Super Kamiokande far detector.
Professor McFarland, who began working on T2K eight years ago, says that "it is very gratifying to see the beam and near detector functioning together after so many years of planning and construction. We are excited to start collecting and analyzing data from these detectors and to realize the payoff of these efforts."
(images: top left, Kevin McFarland; bottom left, Steve Manly; bottom right, Howard Budd)
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