December 6 - 4:00pm Phys 223
(Coffee at 3:30p.m. in room 242)
Chemistry Department
Brookhaven National Laboratory
The recent first results from SNO have been hailed as providing the solution to the 30-year old Solar Neutrino Problem, by explaining why the measured fluxes of solar neutrinos that reach the Earth are significantly smaller than solar-model predictions. Data from SNO on the charged-current and elastic-scattering interactions of 8B solar neutrinos, coupled with the analogous but more precise elastic-scattering results from the Super-Kamiokande detector, provide strong evidence that electron-neutrinos from the Sun oscillate into the other active neutrino flavors. These results lead us to conclude that (a) neutrinos have rest mass, and (b) theoretical models do provide an accurate picture of energy and neutrino production in the Sun.
All solar neutrino experiments depend for their success on the requirement of ultra-low backgrounds and the control of radioactive impurities at ultra-low levels. This talk will begin with a brief review of the operating characteristics of, and results from, the five solar neutrino detectors that have operated prior to SNO. Their data all show significant neutrino deficits relative to solar-model predictions. The main part of the talk will focus on the properties of the SNO neutrino detector. The new SNO results will be presented and their ramifications will be discussed in terms of neutrino oscillations and neutrino masses.
* Research supported by the Office of High-Energy and Nuclear Physics of the U.S.D.O.E. under contract with Brookhaven Science Associates.
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