Overview of the Neutrino and Nucleon Decay Group Research Activities

T2K (Tokai to Kamioka) is a particle physics experiment studying the oscillations of the accelerator neutrinos. The experiment is conducted in Japan by the international cooperation of about 500 physicists and engineers with over 60 research institutions from several countries from Europe, Asia and North America and it is a recognized CERN experiment. T2K collected data within its first phase of operation from 2010 till 2021. The second phase of data taking is expected to start in 2023 and last until commencement of Hyper-Kamiokande experiment in 2027.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a neutrino experiment under construction, with a near detector at Fermilab and a far detector at the Sanford Underground Research Facility that will observe neutrinos produced at Fermilab. An intense beam of trillions of neutrinos from the production facility at Fermilab (in Illinois) will be sent over a distance of 1,300 kilometers with the goal of understanding the role of neutrinos in the universe. More than 1,000 collaborators work on the project.

The experiment is designed for a 20-year period of data collection. The group is involved on:

• ProtoDUNE Single-Phase
• The second Far Detector module that will employ the vertical drift strategy
• Field cage for near and far detector
• DUNE-PRISM

Links to all past experiments can be viewed at the bottom of this page. A list of past experiments is as follows, in no particular order:

• Super-Kamiokande, abbreviation of Super-Kamioka Neutrino Detection Experimen, is a neutrino observatory located under Mount Ikeno near the city of Hida, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is located 1,000 m (3,300 ft) underground in the Mozumi Mine in Hida's Kamioka area. The observatory was designed to detect high-energy neutrinos, to search for proton decay, study solar and atmospheric neutrinos, and keep watch for supernovae in the Milky Way Galaxy.
• 3D scintillator tracker (3DST) as part of DUNE ND. 3DST was a detector of 10 millions optically-isolated cubes that was proposed as tracker of SAND.
• The Cryogenic Apparatus for Precision Tests of Argon Interactions with Neutrino (CAPTAIN) program was designed to make measurements of scientific importance to long-baseline neutrino physics and physics topics that will be explored by large underground detectors. It ran at Los Alamos National Lab and was exposed to a neutron beam to measure the total neutron cross-section on Argon.       
• The K2K experiment (KEK to Kamioka) was a neutrino experiment that ran from June 1999 to November 2004. It used muon neutrinos from a well-controlled and well-understood beam to verify the oscillations previously observed by Super-Kamiokande using atmospheric neutrinos. This was the first positive measurement of neutrino oscillations in which both the source and detector were fully under experimenters' control. Previous experiments relied on neutrinos from the Sun or from cosmic sources. The experiment found oscillation parameters which were consistent with those measured by Super-Kamiokande. 
• Henderson Underground Science and Engineering Project (HUSEP) proposed by Prof. Jung. The Henderson Mine was a high-volume mine on world’s second largest known molybdenum deposit located at Empire, Colorado.  Jung proposed to convert the site in a large underground research facility. 
• Underground Neutrino Observatory (UNO) was an experiment proposed by Prof. Jung in early 2000. The design had a  linear Cherenkov detector configuration with a total volume of 650 kton which was 13 times the total volume of the Super-Kamiokande detector. The physics goals of UNO were to increase the sensitivity of the searches for nucleon decays about a factor of ten and to make precision measurements of the solar and atmospheric neutrino properties.