St. Olaf CollegePhysicsSt. Olaf College

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

"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.