NOvA near detector.

NOvA near detector.

In February, 2015 CSU was admitted into the NOvA Collaboration. Prof. Norm Buchanan, along with postdoctoral fellow Shih-Kai Lin, and graduate student Matt Judah are now members of the Fermilab-based long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment.

The NOvA experiment is Fermilab’s current flagship neutrino oscillation experiment utilizing an intense beam of muon-neutrinos produced at Fermilab. The neutrinos are directed at the 14 kton liquid-scintillator-based far detector located 810 km away in northern Minnesota (Ash River) after passing through the 300 ton near detector close to the beam origin. The far detector was completed in early 2014 and is currently taking data.  NOvA will attempt to discover the neutrino mass hierarchy and the CP violating phase angle along with many other interesting measurements. The first NOvA run is expected to last 6 years.

The CSU group’s contribution will focus on operation of the near detector, as well as measurements made using this detector. Matt Judah will be spending the summer at the lab developing expertise in near detector operation and maintenance while getting started on data analysis.

 




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