The Deep Underground Sky: Underground Science in the 21st Century

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The Deep Underground SkyUnderground Science in
the 21st Century

• Marvin L. Marshak
• University of Minnesota
• April 3, 2001

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Underground Science Fundamental Questions

• What is the origin of the universe?
• What is the nature of the fundamental
  interactions?
• What is the eventual destiny of the Universe?
• What are some ways to apply science to improve
  peoples lives?

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Underground ScienceObserving the Sky

• Neutrino Telescopesobserving the sun,
  supernovae, gamma ray bursts?,neutrino point
  sources?
• Neutrino Mass and Oscillations atmospheric
  neutrinos and long-baseline neutrino experiments
• Dark Matter Searches
• Precision Low-Background radioassaytracing
  effluents, nuclear non-proliferation enforcement

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Terrestrial Underground Science

• Double Beta Decay
• Nucleon Decay
• Nuclear Astrophysicsprecision measurements of
  fusion cross-sections
• Geosciencerock mechanics, water percolation,
  heating tests
• Materials Developmentlow background
  semiconductors
• Microbiologyevolution in harsh environments

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Underground Science CommitteeNP, EP

• John Bahcall, Institute for Advanced Studies
• Barry Barish, Caltech
• Frank Calaprice, Princeton
• Janet Conrad, Columbia
• Peter Doe, U. Washington
• Thomas Gaisser, U. Delaware
• Wick Haxton, U. Washington
• Kevin Lesko, LBNL

• Marvin Marshak, U. Minnesota
• Kem Robinson, LBNL
• Bernard Sadoulet, UC Berkeley
• Henry Sobel, UC Irvine
• Michael Wiescher, Notre Dame
• Stan Wojcicki, Stanford
• John Wilkerson, U. Washington
• Technical Sub-Committee

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Technical Sub-Committee

• Met with Committee in Washington December 14
• Visited potential sites at Homestake, Soudan,
  Carlsbad and San Jacinto
• Visited Gran Sasso and Kamioka
• Identified green field sites along
  California-Nevada border
• Met with full Committee March 3-4 in Berkeley
• Prepared documents on Evaluation Criteria and a
  Technical Assessment Report
• www.sns.ias.edu/bahcall

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Committee Recommendation

• Establish a national underground science
  laboratory at Homestake Mine in Black Hills of
  South Dakota
• Presented last week to NSAC and HEPAP

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Next Generation Solar ??Detectors

• What are the scientific questions?
• What is the origin of the solar neutrino problem?
• Do we understand nuclear astrophysics?
• What is the nature of neutrino mixing?
• What can we learn about neutrino masses and
  mixing angles?
• Do neutrinos have non-Standard Model properties?
  (is lepton number conserved?, how does neutrino
  transform under charge conjugation?, etc.)

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Next Generation Solar ??Detectors

• Detectors will have multiple physics capabilities
• Supernovae detection
• Search for high energy neutrino bursts, gamma ray
  bursts?
• Atmospheric neutrinos
• Long baseline experiments

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Next Generation Solar ??Detectors

• Detectors should have low energy threshold
  (1 Mev) to detect p-p neutrinos
• New coincidence techniques (LENS, MOON)
• Low-temperature detectors (CLEAN, HERON, HP TPC)
• Require ultra-low radioactivity materials
• Underground chemistry and materials preparation
  labs
• Ultra-low activity radioassay laboratory

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Next Generation Solar ??Detectors

• Laboratory Requirements
• Underground depths 5000 mwe
• Space of 7500 - 900,000 m3
• Clean room environment
• Low radon levels
• Safety issues because of possible large
  quantities of cryogens and/or hazardous materials
  (scintillators)

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Underground Nuclear Astrophysics

• What are scientific questions?
• Do we understand the low-energy nuclear physics
  that power stars?
• What is the influence of nuclear structure,
  nuclear reactions on evolution, energy generation
  and time scale in stars and stellar explosions?
• What is origin of elements that comprise present
  day universe?

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Underground Nuclear Astrophysics

• What are experimental issues?
• Extremely low rate measurements are dominated by
  backgrounds when done above ground
• The Laboratory for Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) at
  Gran Sasso has made significant progress in the
  studies of reactions in the p-p burning chain
  (e.g. 3He(3He,2p)4He)
• A high-intensity, low energy heavy-ion
  accelerator underground could perform inverse
  kinematics experiments

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Underground Nuclear Astrophysics

• What are laboratory requirements?
• Depths 4,000 mwe
• Space of 6,000 m3
• Safety issues associated with operations of an
  accelerator

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Underground Microbiology

• Examine evolution of life forms in harsh
  environments
• Sulfur-based organisms found near underwater
  volcanic vents
• Deep underground environment has high lithostatic
  pressure, high temperature and non-neutral pH
• Analogous to searching for life on other planets

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Technological ApplicationsPrecision Radioassay

• For short-lived isotopes (hours to a few days),
  more sensitive than mass spectroscopy
• Can use neutron activation to convert long-lived
  isotopes to short-lived isotopes
• Trace power plant effluent by assaying isotopes
  released from burning coal
• Detect nuclear tests by measuring concentrations
  of 133Xe and 135Xe

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Why Homestake?

• More than 800 km of existing tunnels at depths to
  8,000 feet
• Mine closing at end of 2001 after 125 years
• EPSCoR state with strong, statewide support for
  project

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Letters of Interest

• Interest in Multiple Areas
• 1. Multiple Interest - Siegrist, Schroeder,
  LBNL, 1-Mar-01, solar neutrino, double beta
  decay, dark matter, long baseline, low
  background, and nuclear astrophysics
• 2. Multiple Interest - Bowles et al LANL,
  28-Feb-01, LENS (solar neutrino), long baseline,
  low background, supernova, and nucleon decay
• 3. Multiple Interest - Peter Smith, Rutherford
  Lab 12-Feb-01, OMNIS (supernova), large
  scintillatorsolar ? detector, and liquid Xe dark
  matter
• 4. Supplement to above Smith letter, Peter
  Smith, Rutherford Lab, 20-Feb-01
• 5. Multiple Interest - McKeown and Vogel Cal
  Tech, 12-Feb-01, solar neutrino, double beta
  decay, dark matter
• 6. Multiple Interest - Avignone South Carolina,
  19-Feb-01, solar neutrino, double beta decay,
  dark matter, supernova

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Letters of Interest

• Solar Neutrinos
• 7. CLEAN (Low energy solar neutrino cryogenic)
  Doyle, Harvard, 7-Feb-01
• 8. HERON (superfluid He LE neutrino) Lanou,
  Brown, 7-Feb-01
• 9. High Pressure TPC for solar neutrinos
  Bonicini, Wayne State, 5-Feb-01
• 10.Hybrid radiochemical low energy solar
  neutrino - Lande et al, Penn
• 11. Solar Neutrinos Gavrin, INR, Russia,
  19-Feb-01
• 34. A GaAs Solar Neutrino Detector T. Bowles,
  et al., LANL, 16 February 2001
• 35. LENS S. Raghavan and M. Cribier et al.
• Also see 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 13.

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Letters of Interest

• Double Beta Decay
• 12. EXO (136Xe ??) Gratta, Stanford, 5-Feb-01
• 13. MOON (100Mo ?? solar ?) - Ejiri
  Robertson, Osaka, Univ Wash, 3-Mar-01
• Also see 1, 2, 5, 6, and 16.
• 36. Majorana H. Miley, Pacific Northwest
  Laboratories, 29 March 2001

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Letters of Interest

• Dark Matter
• 14. CryoArray -- CDMSIII, WIMP detection -
  Gaitskell Akerib,
• University College London Case Western Reserve,
  16-Feb-01
• 15. Dark Matter - Collar, CNRS, France,
  20-Feb-01
• 16. Dark Matter, neutrino detection Willis,
  Columbia, (see Aprile below)
• 17. DRIFT (WIMP TPC detector) - Martoff
  Snowden-Ifft Temple University
• 18. Liquid Xe for Dark Matter - Aprile Hailey,
  Columbia, 18-Feb-01
• 19. WIMPS with neutrons Ward, Dept. of Energy,
  20-Feb-01
• Also see 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6

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Letters of Interest

• Nucleon Decay
• 20.UNO (nucleon decay) Jung Sobel, Stony
  Brook UCI for UNO proto-collaboration,
  20-Feb-01
• 21.Nucleon Decay - Mann and Lande, Univ. of
  Penn, 5-Feb-01
• Also see 2 and 3.
• Atmospheric Neutrinos
• See Nucleon Decay, Long Baseline, and Solar
  Neutrino Experiments.
• Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiments
• 22.Long Baseline Neutrino Factory - Schellman
  for 23 signers, 15 Institutions, 18-Feb-01
• 23.Neutrino Factory Detector at WIPP Cline,
  UCLA,
• Also see 1, 2, and 3.

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Letters of Interest

• Supernova Neutrinos
• 24. OMNIS (supernova) at WIPP - Boyd and Murphy,
  Ohio State
• 25. OMNIS - Fenyves Burgett, Univ. of
  Texas-Dallas, 16-Feb-01
• Also see 1, 2, 3, 6, Nucleon Decay, and Solar
  Neutrino Experiments.
• Nuclear Astrophysics
• 26. Nuclear Astrophysics Accelerator
  Measurements Gai, Univ. Conn, 16-Feb-01
• 27. Nuclear Astrophysics Accelerator
  Measurements Greife, Colorado School of Mines,
  7-Feb-01
• Also see 1

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Letters of Interest

• Geoscience
• 28. Geophysics Benson, LBNL, 19-Feb-01
• Also see 33
• Materials Development and Technology
• 29. Low background studies - Coursey, Karam,
  Lindstrom, Nico, NIST, 21-Feb-01
• 30. Cyro-detectors for neutrino scattering and
  gravity - Trimble (for Weber), UCI, 8-Feb-01
• Also see 1, 2, 31, and 32.

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Letters of Interest

• Monitoring Nuclear Tests
• 31.PIsCES (ultra-low background detectors and
  materials analysis) Hartmann for collaboration,
  NRL,
• 32.PIsCES (ultra-low background detectors and
  materials analysis) Gursky, NRL, 8-Feb-01
• Microbiology
• 33. Biology and Geoscience, Onstott for
  collaboration, Princeton, 16-Feb-01

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Outreach Program

• People are interested in Cosmos
• Both on and off-site outreach
• Expect gt100,000 visitors per year
• Underground experience for all some will choose
  to go deep underground
• NSFs Cape Kennedy
• Special outreach initiatives to EPSCoR states,
  underrepresented groups

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Current Status

• Proposal on laptop to go to NSF by April 15
• South Dakota legislature has approved accepting
  title
• Sen. Tom Daschle will seek to add Homestake
  indemnification to tax bill
• Scientific peer review
• Political pressure on President and Congress to
  increase NSF budget in FY2002 to fund laboratory