First Scientific Results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory to be Announced on Monday 18 June
(Sudbury, ON) – The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), an international
laboratory built to provide unique insights into the properties of
neutrinos and their emission from the core of the sun, will submit a
scientific paper with its first results by Monday, June 18, 2001 and
will announce these research findings in a scientific presentation by
Dr. Tony Noble at 9:15 am PDT (12:15 pm EDT) on June 18, at the Annual
Congress of the Canadian Association of Physicists at the University of
Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia. Presentations will also be made
that day at SNO member institutions in the United States and the United
Kingdom. A copy of the first scientific paper and news release
summarizing SNO’s findings and their importance will be posted on the
SNO website (www.sno.phy.queensu.ca) at 12:15 pm EDT (9:15 am PDT) on
June 18.
“We look forward to this opportunity to share these very exciting
findings with the scientific community and the general public,” says
Dr. Art McDonald, SNO Project Director and member of the Department of
Physics at Queen’s University. “These first results are the fruits of
years of intense work by a collaboration of close to 100 scientists at
11 universities and national laboratories in Canada, the United States
and the United Kingdom.” “The data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
provides us with an enhanced understanding of important properties of
neutrinos from the Sun, of the Sun itself and of the effect of neutrinos
on the evolution of the Universe.”
Additional information about the conference presentations, the SNO
laboratory and its capabilities and the participating institutions can
be found at www.sno.phy.queensu.ca .
Video footage/photos of SNO can be obtained in advance of the news
release date by contacting media relations officer Paul De la Riva,
Laurentian University at (705) 675-1151 Ext. 3406. A set of high
resolution lab photos can be downloaded from the SNO web site as well.
A media tour of the SNO laboratory at the Creighton Mine in Sudbury will
be held from 1:15 to 4:45 pm EDT on Monday, June 18. A place on this
tour or interviews with SNO scientists on the day of the conference
presentation can be arranged by contacting Paul de la Riva (Laurentian
University) at (705) 675-1151 ext. 3406, or Anne Kershaw (Queen’s
University) at (613) 533-6000, ext. 74038.
The following Canadian SNO scientists will be available on June 18 as of
10:00 am PDT (1:00 pm EDT) for interviews:
- Dr. Art McDonald, SNO Project Director, Queen’s U. (in Victoria BC via
cell phone (613) 541-1405). - Dr. Tony Noble, Carleton U. and TRIUMF Laboratory (in Victoria BC via
cell phone (705) 691-3692) - Dr. Doug Hallman, Director of Communications, SNO, (in Victoria BC via
cell phone (705) 691-5495) - Dr. David Sinclair, Associate Director, SNO Project, Carleton U. (in
Victoria BC via cell phone (705) 691-5495) - Dr. George Ewan, Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University, Original SNO
Co-spokesman (613) 533-2698 - Dr. Clarence Virtue, Laurentian University, (in Sudbury (705) 691-5329)
- Dr. Chris Waltham, Professor of Physics, University of British Columbia
(in Victoria BC via cell phone (705) 691-5495) - Dr. John Simpson, Professor of Physics, University of Guelph
(519) 824-4120 Ext. 3982
Media contacts at the conference are being coordinated by University of
Victoria
Communications Officer, Mike McNeney (250) 721-7642 (mmcneney@uvic.ca).
The principal scientific investigators at the eleven SNO institutions
are identified on the SNO website, together with contact information.
U.S. Co-spokesmen:
- Dr. R.G. Hamish Robertson, University of Washington
(206) 616-2745
Dr. Eugene Beier, University of Pennsylvania
(215) 898 5979
U.K. Co-spokesmen:
- Professor David Wark, RAL/University of Sussex
01 235 445094
Dr. Nick Jelley, Oxford University
011 441 865 273380
Background Information
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is a unique neutrino telescope, the
size of a ten-storey building 2 kilometers underground in INCO’s
Creighton Mine near Sudbury Ontario planned, constructed and operated by
a 100 member team of scientists from Canada, the United States and the
United Kingdom. Through its use of heavy water, the SNO detector
provides unique ways to detect neutrinos from the sun and other
astrophysical objects and measure their properties. For many years, the
number of solar neutrinos measured by other underground detectors have
been found to be smaller than expected from theories of energy
generation in the sun. This has led scientists to infer that either the
understanding of the Sun is incomplete, or that the neutrinos are
changing from one type to another in transit from the core of the Sun.
The SNO detector has the capability to measure the numbers reaching the
earth of the electron-type neutrinos produced in the sun and also to
measure independently the total rate of all of the three known types of
neutrinos. This unique capability enables SNO to determine whether
solar neutrinos are changing their type enroute to Earth, thus providing
answers to questions about neutrino properties and solar energy
generation.
The SNO detector consists of 1000 tonnes of ultrapure heavy water
enclosed in a 12 meter diameter acrylic plastic vessel, which in turn is
surrounded by ultrapure ordinary water in a giant 22 meter diameter by
34 meter high cavity. Outside the acrylic vessel is a 17 meter diameter
geodesic sphere containing 9600 light sensors or photomultiplier tubes,
which detect tiny flashes of light emitted as neutrinos are stopped or
scattered in the heavy water. The flashes are recorded and analyzed to
extract information about the neutrinos causing them. At a detection
rate of about one neutrino per hour, many days of operation are required
to provide sufficient data for a complete analysis. The laboratory
includes electronics and computer facilities, a control room, and water
purification systems for both heavy and regular water.
The construction of the SNO Laboratory began in 1990 and was completed
in 1998 at a cost of $73M CDN with support from the Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Research
Council of Canada, the Northern Ontario Heritage Foundation, Industry,
Science and Technology Canada, INCO Limited, the United States
Department of Energy, and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research
Council of the UK. The heavy water is on loan from Canada’s federal
agency AECL with the cooperation of Ontario Power Generation, and the
unique underground location is provided through the cooperation and
support of INCO Limited. Measurements at the SNO Laboratory began in
1999, and the detector has been in almost continuous operation since
November 1999 when, after a period of calibration and testing, its
operating parameters were set in their final configuration.
Further background information can be found on the SNO website:
www.sno.phy.queensu.ca .
SNO Participating Institutions
Canada
Queen's University Carleton University Laurentian University University of Guelph University of British Columbia Chalk River Laboratories (to 1996)
United States
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory University of Pennsylvania University of Washington Brookhaven National Laboratory Princeton University (to 1992) University of California at Irvine (to 1989)
United Kingdom
Oxford University
For further information:
Prof. Art McDonald, Queen's University Dr. Doug Hallman Director Director of Communications Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Institute Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Creighton Mine, Lively Ontario Laurentian University (705) 692-7000 (705) 675-1151 Ext. 2231 FAX (705) 692-7001 FAX (705) 675-4868 mcdonald@sno.phy.queensu.ca edh@nu.phys.laurentian.ca Dr. Eugene Beier Dr. David Wark U.S. Co-spokesman U.K. Co-spokesman University of Pennsylvania RAL/University of Sussex Philadelphia, PA, USA Sussex, UK (215) 898-5960 01 235 445094 FAX (215) 898-8512 FAX 01 235 446733 geneb@hep.upenn.edu d.wark1@physics.ox.ac.uk
Reference:
Paul de la Riva, media relations officer Anne Kershaw, manager Public Affairs Department Public Affairs Department Laurentian University Queen's University Sudbury, ON, Canada Kingston, ON, Canada (705) 673-6566 (613) 533-6000 Ext. 74038 FAX (705) 675-4840 FAX (613) 533-6652 www.laurentian.ca www.queensu.ca pdelariva@nickel.laurentian.ca kershaw@post.queensu.ca
