Speaker
Prof.
Christopher Mauger
(University of Pennsylvania)
Description
WATCHMAN (Water Cherenkov Monitor of AntiNeutrinos) is an international collaboration
whose purpose is to demonstrate the feasibility of using a gadolinium-doped water Cherenkov detector
to detect electron anti-neutrinos emitted by distant nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors produce high fluxes
of anti-neutrinos during operation and have been exploited by many experiments during the entire epoch
of experimental neutrino physics. Given the high fluxes, WATCHMAN aims to demonstrate a method to determine the existence or non-existence of hidden reactors at distances of hundreds of kilometers away
from a detector location. The key game-changing ingredient is gadolinium-loaded water as the detection
medium which enables neutron detection and thus detection of the delayed coincidence signal induced
by electron anti-neutrino interactions with free protons. This technology can feasibly be scaled to
megatons of mass - making detection of low-power reactors at long distances possible. WATCHMAN
employs a kiloton-scale detector in the Boulby Mine in the United Kingdom to measure anti-neutrinos
from the Hartlepool reactor complex. The current status of the project will be discussed.
Primary author
Prof.
Christopher Mauger
(University of Pennsylvania)
