MiniBooNE prepares for its first neutrinos

1 May 2002

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The MiniBooNE detector is coming closer to receiving its first neutrinos, planned for later this year. The experiment at Fermilab (the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, FNAL) will investigate the oscillation of neutrinos from one type to another, and test results of an earlier experiment, the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) experiment at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The detector will observe neutrinos created from protons from the 8 GeV Booster at Fermilab, which is part of the system that normally accelerates protons to much higher energies (up to 1 TeV). The MiniBooNE detector is basically a 12-m diameter spherical steel tank filled with mineral oil that flashes light when charged particles travel through.

This picture shows the detector in September 2001, when the installation and testing of the 1520 photomultiplier tubes to detect the light from the neutrino interactions was almost complete. On April 29, 2002, protons were successfully transported protons down the new 8 GeV beam line towards where the target that will create the neutrino beam will lie. And on May 3 the last of 250,000 gallons of mineral oil was pumped into the detector.

Credit: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory