Kimballton Laboratory
- an underground science and engineering opportunity
R. Bruce Vogelaar
Ole Miss
Feb 8, 2005
vogelaar@vt.edu
Virginia Tech
National and International Underground Science and Engineering
Programs have been very successful and well funded.
Need for a new US underground facility identified by:
National Academy of Sciences
National Research Council
Nuclear Science Advisory Committee LRP
Major
Regional
Opportunity
http://www.phys.vt.edu/~kimballton
Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory
(DUSEL) Motivation (a la NSF)
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Geosciences
Engineering
Geobiology
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Neutrino Physics
Dark Matter Search
Nucleon Decay
National Security
Outreach
5%
25%
Oridnary Matter
Dark Matter
Dark Energy
70%
SN1987a
from EarthLab Report
Some of the ‘Big’ Questions:
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Evolution of Life – Life Under Extreme Conditions
Can We Obtain a ‘Transparent’ Earth?
How do Mineral Deposits Form?
How do We Make Deep Underground Space?
What is ‘Dark Matter’, ‘Dark Energy’?
Are Neutrinos Their Own Anti-Particles?
Is the Sun Getting Hotter?
Are We Being Good Stewards of Water?
How do Microbes Affect Geo-chemistry?
Can We Optimize the Exploration and Extraction of
Earth’s Resources – such as oil?
etc…
Existing Laboratories
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Sudbury Neutrino
Observatory (Canada)
Laboratori Nationale
Gran Sasso (Italy)
Principle Laboratories
Worldwide
(by decreasing depth)
Homestake (SD)
Sudbury (Canada)
Mont Blanc (France)
Baksan (Ukraine)
Gran Sasso (Italy)
Kamioke (Japan)
Soudan (MN)
WIPP (NM)
Potential Sites
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
The Kimballton Mine
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Active limestone mine
Tractor-trailer drive-in
access
Heart of Appalachian
Mountains in Thomas
Jefferson National Forest
30 minutes from Virginia
Tech
owned and operated by
Chemical Lime Corporation
Kimballton
The Valley and Ridge
over-thrust
structure reflects
intense compression
along the protoAtlantic Continental
margin during the
Alleghenian collision
event between
North America and
Africa. The collision
created the Pangean
super continent
some 300 million
years ago.
The break up of
Pangea began in the
Triassic Period
about 245 million
years ago and by
the Jurassic Period
continental rifts
forming the
Atlantic and Gulf of
Mexico Ocean
basins were well
established.
Valley and Ridge Topography Reveals Some
300 Million Years of Geological History.
BUTT
MOUNTAIN
The modern
Appalachian
Mountains are
forming by
gentle uplift,
rejuvenation
and
entrenchment
of rivers along
the eastern
flanks of the
Atlantic Basin.
Regional Cross Section
Allegheny Plateau
Valley and Ridge
BUTT
MTN
Butt Mountain is a large synclinal mountain near the western edge of
the Valley and Ridge. This region is characterized by linear ridges
held up by tilted strata of resistant sandstone with limestone and
shale in fault line valleys. Access to outcropping sedimentary strata
allows excellent surface structural control based on contrasting
stratigraphy.This will also prove to be an asset in designing and
exploring laboratory sites in the subsurface.
Geology for the Butt
Mountain Area,
Giles County, Virginia
showing section lines
DIGITAL GEOLOGIC MAP OF
THE RADFORD 30X60 MINUTE
QUADRANGLE, VIRGINIA AND
WEST VIRGINIA
Geology by Mervin J. Bartholomew, Arthur
P. Schultz, Sharon E. Lewis, Robert C.
McDowell, and William S. Henika
2000
Kimballton Advantages
•site in sedimentary rock;
•environmentally friendly;
•short time to first-science;
•heterogeneous known
geology;
•dormant fault;
•repeating geologic layers;
•local major research
university;
•excellent climate, power and
transportation;
•outreach to Appalachia &
mining communities;
•support from local community
Kimballton Interior
Gran Sasso, Hall C
Comparative Size of
Super-Kamioka in Japan
(100 kTon water)
dimensions in feet
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Kimballton (limestone) (Bq/kg)
 18±1, 13±1
226Ra  1.2±0.1, 1.9±0.2
226Th  0.6±0.1, 0.9±0.2
Gran Sasso (Dolomite rock)
(Bq/kg)
 40K
 40K
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Radon concentration
 222Rn < 10 Bq/m3
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 15
226Ra  5
226Th  0.3
Radon concentration
 222Rn  40 – 70 Bq/m3
Initial Programs (Facility by April 2005)
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low-level detector
development (Naval
Research Laboratory)
LENS prototype
AMADEUS – NSF ITR
funded VT project
100Mo experiment from
Duke
underground Cu
electro-forming
development of remote
underground handling
equipment
concepts for first phase laboratory
First Detectors - NRL
Technology transfer from MPIK & Gran Sasso
•Low-Background HPGe
(like GeMPI, SEGA, MEGA, etc.)
•Gas Proportional Counters
(like Gallex, GNO, etc)
TYPICAL DUSEL OPTION (7500 ft depth)
Capture ALL science
needs in lab concept
from the start.
Rock Strengh > 150MPa
Q ~ 23
DUSEL NSF Process
Stage I - Science Case (joint proposal submitted Sept 15, 2004)
Stage II – Site Designs (due February 28, 2005)
Stage III – Engineering & Suite of Initial Experiments
Geo/Eng/Bio workshop at Blacksburg, VA Nov 12-14, 2004
Kimballton Team: 139 Current Members (and growing)
Duke U
Georgia Tech
Harvard
Iowa State
LANL
LBL
Mich Tech
NIST
MIT
Nav. Res. Lab.
NM Tech
NCSU
ORNL
Penn State U
Princeton
Purdue
Temple
U Alaska
U Arizona
U Maryland
U Minnisota
U Missouri-Rolla
U N Carolina
U Oklahoma
USGS
U Tennessee
U Toronto
U Virginia
U Arizona
Virginia Tech
VC Univ
W Virginia U
APS Neutrino Study (DNP,DPF,DAP,DPB)
1) We recommend, as a high priority, a phased program of sensitive
searches for neutrinoless nuclear double beta decay…
2) We recommend, as a high priority, a comprehensive U.S. program to
complete our understanding of neutrino mixing, to determine the character
of the neutrino mass spectrum and to search for CP violation among
neutrinos…
3) “We recommend development of an experiment to make precise
measurements of the low-energy neutrinos from the sun. So far, only the
solar neutrinos with relatively high energy, a small fraction of the total,
have been studied in detail. A precise measurement of the low-energy
neutrino spectrum would test our understanding of how solar neutrinos
change flavor, probe the fundamental question of whether the sun shines
only through nuclear fusion, and allow us to predict how bright the sun
will be tens of thousands of years from now.”
Ln (inferred from expt)/L = 1.4 +0.2-0.3(1s)+0.7-0.6(3s)
The LENS (low-energy neutrino spectroscopy) detector can do this
at the current depth of the Kimballton mine!
Discovery Potential of LE solar Neutrinos
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Physical proof of LMA (compatibility but no
smoking gun yet)
Improving precision of n parameters 12; 13; m2
Uncover surprises---Sterile Neutrinos
Non-Standard Interactions
Nu Magnetic moments
Validity of CPT
Hidden sources of energy (other than nuclear
fusion) in sun?
Will the sun get hotter in the future?
Elastic Scattering or Charged Current?
(or both?)
Elastic Scattering:
Cross section well defined
Neutrino energy not defined
Spectrum smeared
No reaction tag- signal and bgd
not uniquely separable
Good for Strong Line Source
e.g. 7 Be with ultralow bgd
BOREXINO (for 7Be)
Future CLEAN/HERON for pp
Tagged Nu Capture:
CC Cross-section must be
measured with Source
Nu energy uniquely defined
Best for spectral information
Tag uniquely separates signal &
bgd
Ideal for resolving spectrum
from multiple sources (the case at Low Energies)
LENS-Sol only
Low Energy Neutrino Spectroscopy
~ 600 Hz / cell due to In
Conceptual Design
Projected Fractional Uncertainties in
Measured Fluxes: 16-32 T In (~400 T total)
Item
pp
7Be (S/N=10)
(S/N=4)
32 T In
16 T In
32 T In
16 T In
S=5000/5y
S=2500/y
S=2500/y
S=1250/5y
1.55
2.23
2.12
3.0
Coinc. Detection Efficiency Δε/ε
0.7
0.7
0.7
0.7
No. of Target Nuclei ΔN/N
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
Cross Section (Q value) ΔI/I
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
Cross Section (B(GT)) ΔM/M
1.8
1.8
1.8
1.8
2.5%
3.0%
2.9%
3.6%
Signal/Bgd Statistics ΔS/S
Total Uncertainty Δφ/φ
Cross section calibration done in Russia with
37Ar
source in “LENS-Cal”
Hyper Scintillation Detector (~50 kTons)
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Elementary Particles
 Proton Decay
 Neutrino Physics-Long Baseline beams from BNL/Fermilab
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CP violation in Neutrino Sector
3-nu mixing –θ13
Hierarchy of Neutrino mass matrix
Astrophysics of Exploding Stars (Supernovae SN)
Geophysical Structure and Evolution of the Earth via geo neutrinos
High Red Shift Cosmology
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Detection and Spectroscopy of relic n bgd from past SN
Proponents:
 John Learned, Sandip Pakvasa (U Hawaii)
 Robert Svoboda (LSU)
 Franz Feilitzsch, Lothar Oberauer (TUMunich)
 Kate Scholberg (Duke U)
 Bruce Vogelaar, Mark Pitt, Tatsu Takeuchi, Lay Nam Chang, Raju
Raghavan (VT)
LENA (HSD)
Npe ~ 100 / MeV 
Oberauer, L
Proton Decay and LENA (HSD)
p
Kn
• This decay mode is favoured in SUSY theories
• The primary decay particle K is invisible in Water
Cherenkov detectors
• Both it and the K-decay particles are visible in
scintillation detectors
• Better energy resolution further reduces background
Oberauer, L
P ->
+
K
n
event structure:
T (K+) = 105 MeV
t (K+) = 12.8 nsec
K+ -> m+ n
(63.5 %)
T (m+) = 152 MeV
K+ -> p+ p0 (21.2 %)
T (p+) = 108 MeV
electromagnetic shower
E = 135 MeV
m+ -> e+ n n (t = 2.2 ms)
p+ -> m+ n
(T = 4 MeV)
m+ -> e+ n n (t = 2.2 ms)
•3 - fold coincidence
•the first 2 events are monoenergetic
•use time- and position correlation
How well can one separate the
first two events ?
....results of a first Monte-Carlo calculation
(Oberauer – LENA)
P decay into K and n
K
m
m
K
Signal in LENA (HSD)
Oberauer, L
Background
Rejection:
• monoenergetic K- and
m-signal
• position correlation
• pulse-shape analysis
(after correction for
reconstructed position)
Oberauer, L
• SuperKamiokande has 170 background events in 1489 days
(efficiency 33% )
•In HSD, this would scale down to a background of ~ 5 / y and
after PSD-analysis this could be suppressed in HSD to
~ 0.25 / y ! (efficiency ~ 70% )
•A 30 kt detector (~ 1034 protons as target) would have a sensitivity
of t < a few 1034 years for the K-decay after ~10 years
measuring time
•The minimal SUSY SU(5) model predicts the K-decay mode to be
dominant with a partial lifetime varying from 1029 y to 1035 y !
actual best limit from SK: t > 6.7 x 1032 y (90% cl)
Oberauer, L
Galactic Supernova neutrino detection with HSD
(1) n e + p  e + + n
Electron Antineutrino
(Q = 1.8 MeV) spectroscopy ~7800
(2) n e + 12C  e + + 12B
(Q = 13.4 MeV)
(3) n e + C  e + N
(Q = 17.3 MeV)
12
-
12
Electron n spectroscopy
~ 65
(4) n x + 12C  n x + 12C *
with
(5) n x + e -  n x + e -
(elastic scattering off electrons) ~ 480
(6) n x + p  n x + p
(elastic scattering off protons).
12
C * 12 C + 
(Q = E  = 15.1 MeV)
Neutral current interactions; info on all flavours ~ 4000
and ~ 2200
Event rates for a SN type IIa in the galactic center (10 kpc)
Oberauer, L
SN n detection and neutrino oscillations
Modulations in the energy
spectrum due to matter
effects in the Earth
Dighe, Keil, Raffelt (2003)
Preconditions for observation of those
modulations
• SN neutrino spectra ne and nm,t are different
• distance L in Earth large enough
• very good statistics
• very good energy resolution
World Class Physics, Geology, Engineering
& Biology – near your area – join the team.