| Department Colloquium |

Wednesday
Oct. 12, 2005
Science Center 170
2:00—3:00 p.m.
Lunch: 12:00 in
Buntrock Commons #221
Phone: 507-646-3120
email: russell@stolaf.edu
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"Neutrinos: From Cosmic Rays and Accelerators to Old
Iron Mines and the Fate of the Universe"
Alec Habig
U. of Minnesota-Duluth
Physics Department
Neutrinos
are fundamental particles, which interact only weakly with other matter, and
had been thought to be massless. However, if they did have some non-zero mass,
they would change flavors as they fly along.
This
talk follows the search for these "oscillations" in neutrinos coming
from cosmic-ray interactions with the Earth's upper atmosphere using the
Super-Kamiokande experiment, and the MINOS experiment, which is making precise
measurements of the phenomenon by creating an intense, well-understood neutrino
beam at Fermilab (near Chicago) and observing it 735km away at the Soudan Mine
in Northeast Minnesota.
Lastly,
the implications of a whole lot of slightly massive neutrinos sloshing around
the universe are discussed.
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