Saturday, February 18, 2012
Exhibit Hall A-B1 (VCC West Building)
The goal of the Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment is to measure neutrino mixing. The planned operation and current status of the detectors will be reviewed. Three Automatic Calibration Units, each implanted with radioactive sources, provide calibrations of energy using a Co-60 source, which emits 1.173 MeV and 1.333 MeV gamma rays, a Ge-68 source, which is used for positron threshold, and an Am source, which is used to determine the neutron energy scale. The detectors and experimental halls in the experiment are currently under installation and construction. Six of the calibration units have been installed, and the others are currently being tested for leaks and assessed for performance. The first data set was analyzed in August. A neutrino signal is present, indicating all systems are functioning.