The international experiments devoted to the study of neutrinos “RED - 100"

Ekaterina Kozlova 3rd year student of department 40 tells us about her diploma study.

Neutrino physics is rightfully one of the most fascinating and mysterious part of modern physics. Neutrino research is interesting not only in terms of neutrino astronomy, but also in terms of fundamental physics, it refers to the confirmation or refutation of some aspects of the Standard Model .

In one of the international experiments devoted to the study of neutrinos “RED - 100” , MEPhI actively participates in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory , USA. “RED-100” is new generation two-phase emission detector that will be used for
registration of coherent neutrino scattering effect - the fundamental physical process - occurring within the Standard Model of electroweak interactions.

This effect has never been observed in practice because of the very small nuclear recoil energy, for example, expected energy of xenon nuclears is less than 1 keV. Registration of that effect will confirm the predictions of the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. If the result would be different from the predicted, that fact may be a sign for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Detector infrastructure.

Now I have a unique opportunity to finish my diploma on the basis of this experiment. The main goal of my work is to assemble the internal parts of the detector, prepare the machinery and build details – for example, thermal bridges – they had demanded establishment directly in the laboratory because it was impossible to predict their exact shape, and there was a necessity to create them from material amenable to elastic deformation (we used copper foil).

Inside view of the detector in work-in-progress.

After session on the Spallation Neutrino Source at Oak Ridge detector is planned to carry to the Kalinin nuclear power plant station - for researching practical possibilities of its use (for instance, early accident registration).