Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

A new experiment is being developed at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), Canada's world-leading neutrino physics facility. The experiment is called SNO+ and it consists of filling the SNO detector with a liquid scintillator now that the heavy water that was in SNO has been removed. By turning SNO into SNO+, a multipurpose experiment with diverse scientific goals would be created. SNO+ will be able to address fundamental questions in particle physics, in geophysics, and in astrophysics. SNO+ will start where SNO leaves off and it will expand our understanding of the neutrino and its impact on the physical universe. A liquid scintillator emits 100 times more light when a neutrino interacts in it compared to a neutrino interaction in water. This means that SNO+ will be able to detect neutrinos with lower energies. 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, antineutrinos from natural radioactivity in the Earth will be detected by SNO+. SNO+ will thus be able to assay the total amount of uranium and thorium radioactivity in the deep Earth. The fraction of Earth's heat that originates from radioactivity is a fundamental question that could be answered. An extremely rare nuclear decay will be studied in SNO+ by dissolving neodymium in the liquid scintillator. Observation of this process, known as neutrinoless double beta decay, would shed light on the fundamental nature of the neutrino with potential impact on our understanding of matter and antimatter in the Universe. SNO+ has been conducting R&D, funded by NSERC since April 2005. In 2007 SNO+ has been completing full technical designs for the engineered components of the new detector. At this point in the development of the project, SNO+ is ready for implementation. We are ready to move forward with capital construction and this proposal requests funding for a portion of the capital costs of the SNO+ experiment, with the remainder to be requested from a CFI infrastructure grant. This proposal also includes amounts to support SNO+ research activities at Queen's, Alberta and Laurentian.