Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

SNO+ is the follow-up experiment to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). With a liquid scintillator in place of the heavy water that was in the SNO detector, a new experiment with extended sensitivity at lower energies is being built. SNO+ will be able to address fundamental questions in particle physics, in geosciences, and in astrophysics. SNO+ will start where SNO left off and it will expand our understanding of the neutrino and its impact on the physical universe. A liquid scintillator emits over 50 times more light when a neutrino interacts in it compared to in water. Consequently SNO+ will be able to detect neutrinos with lower energies than SNO. Lower energy neutrinos from the Sun will be studied to shed light on the properties of neutrinos and the energy generation processes in stars. Separately, ""geo neutrinos"" from natural radioactivity in the Earth will be detected by SNO+. The quantity of geo neutrinos detected can be related to the total amount of radioactivity in the deep Earth and its role in Earth's thermal processes and history. Finally, an extremely rare nuclear decay will also be studied in SNO+ by dissolving neodymium or other isotope in the liquid scintillator. Observation of this process, known as neutrinoless double beta decay, would tell physicists about the matter-antimatter properties of the neutrino, and its connection to cosmological questions about matter and antimatter in the Universe. SNO+ detector construction is nearing completion. In 2013, the detector will be filled/operated with water to study optics and backgrounds, and to complete electronics/DAQ commissioning. The underground installation of the scintillator purification plant will take place concurrently. Later in 2013, the plant and the SNO+ detector will be ready to receive scintillator. During the 2013-2015 period of this NSERC proposal, there will be a strong Canadian analysis effort that will extract physics from first SNO+ data. This proposal requests funds to support: HQP training, travel, materials and supplies related to final construction, commissioning, data taking and first physics.