BooNE:

Booster Neutrino Experiment


BooNE Collaborators at LSU     Continuing the work done at LSND, the BooNE detector will conclusively confirm or reject the numu->nue oscillation interpretation of the signal that LSND observed.  With better systematic checks and increased luminosity, BooNE will be in a good position to achieve that goal.  Furthermore, it will be able to accurately determine the oscillation parameters, sin²(2 theta) and delta m² of the oscillations.
    BooNE will be completed in two phases.  The first phase, appropriately called Mini-BooNE, will consist of constructing a beam line off the Booster already at Fermilab.  The beam of 8-GeV protons from the Booster will be focused on an Al target and the resulting pions will be focused down a 50m beam pipe, in which they will decay.   The first spherical detector will be located 500 m away from the target area and will feature a 500-ton fiducial volume.  It will have a radius of 6.1 m and1220 8-inch PMTs facing inwards.  There will be a 35cm veto region outside the radius of the fiducial volume.  Construction of the first phase will be finished in 2001.  The detector design is shown above.
    The second phase will consist of constructing a second detector in a location that optimizes the oscillation probability based on the oscillation parameters obtained from Mini-BooNE.  The second detector will drastically reduce the systematic errors in the oscillation parameters.
    The LSU group is in charge of the calibration system for the BooNE experiment.  There will be 4 laser bulbs inside the fiducial volume that will allow the regular testing of the PMTs.  There will be a hodoscope above the detector,  that will track cosmic ray muons into the tank.  This muon tracker will determine the position and direction of muons entering the tank.  In addition, there will be six optically isolated 2-inch cubes of scintillator located inside the tank underneath the muon tracker.  These cubes will allow the energy measurement of stopped muons inside the tank.