An Assessment of the Science Proposed for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) (2012) / Chapter Skim
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STUDY BACKGROUND The DUSEL Program Within the confines of the existing underground mines and laboratories in the United States and abroad, the U.S. research community has always played a leading 5
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on pro ton decay at the Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven experiment in a Morton salt mine;2 and the pioneering solid-state direct-detection dark matter experiment, Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, in the Soudan mine.3 As the required sensitivity and scale of underground experiments grow, the need for new underground laboratory space has drawn the attention and proposals of research communities around the world (see Chapter 2)
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The principal charge to the committee is as follows: The committee will undertake an assessment of the proposed DUSEL program, including: • An assessment of the major physics questions that could be addressed with the pro posed DUSEL and associated physics experiments, • An assessment of the impact of the DUSEL infrastructure on research in fields other than physics, • An assessment of the impact of the proposed program on the stewardship of the research communities involved, • An assessment of the need to develop such a program in the U.S., in the context of similar science programs in other regions of the world, • An assessment of broader impacts of such an activity, including but not limited to education and outreach to the public. This report is the response to that charge.
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In particular, the committee did not assess any future experimental opportunities that would be enabled by the existence of an underground research facility but that had not been included in the initial suite of experiments. In assessing the impact of the DUSEL infrastructure on fields other than physics, the committee considered the suite of experiments in the biosciences, geosciences, and subsurface engineering that were presented to it as being indicative of the type of nonphysics questions that could be addressed rather than as specifying the DUSEL nonphysics program.
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Chapter 4 concludes the report by describing the broader impacts of the program, including the education and outreach opportunities such a program might provide. SCIENCE OVERVIEW Physics Experiments The committee finds that three of the proposed physics experiments -- a direct detection dark matter experiment on the scale of one to tens of tons; a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment; and a ton-scale, neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment -- to be of paramount and comparable importance.
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By significantly improving sensitivity to the so-called mixing angle between the lightest and heaviest of the neutrinos, to the hierarchy of neutrino masses, and to matter-antimatter asymmetry in neutrino oscillations, this experiment will probe for more signs of the new physics that revealed itself when neutrino mass was discovered in earlier oscillation experiments, and it will elucidate the processes of the early Universe. As discussed in more detail later in this chapter, this experiment will also provide increased sensitivity for the possible detection of proton decay and neutrinos from supernovas.
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The marked improvements in sensitivity that will be afforded by next-generation underground experiments for detecting dark matter and studying neutrinos will enable significant advances in these matters of fundamental and critical scientific importance. Proceeding with plans to build in the United States a worldleading long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, and taking a leadership role in developing within the United States both a direct detection dark matter experiment on a scale of one to tens of tons and a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment on the ton scale will bring an extraordinary opportunity for the U.S.
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An underground research facility would also offer the opportunity to under take several other important physics studies. In addition to investigating neutrino characteristics, the detector in the long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment would provide the increased sensitivity needed for the study of proton decay and would allow collecting valuable data if a supernova event occurred in the nearby universe during the course of operation.
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As a result, the added reach is not sufficient for proton decay to be the primary factor in decisions on neutrino detector technology or siting. Supernova Studies The large detector of an underground long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment could make a unique and valuable contribution to the study of supernovas.
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However, these sensitivities are not so impor tant as to make them primary considerations in choosing neutrino detector technology or a site for the experiment. Nuclear Astrophysics The committee found that an accelerator-based study to measure the low energy nuclear cross sections needed to elucidate astrophysical processes would be scientifically important.
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Conclusion: The ability to perform long-term experiments in the regulated environment of an underground research facility could enable a paradigm shift in research in subsurface engineering and would allow other valuable experiments in the geosciences and biosciences. BROADER IMPACTS Co-location of Experiments Underground research such as the major physics experiments described above, requires experienced personnel and extensive infrastructure to provide access, power, and ventilation, as well as surface facilities for the assembly and maintenance of apparatus.
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and the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake, a facility developed in conjunction with the DUSEL program. Although each proposed or future experiment could be located in some existing, expanded, or new facil ity, stewardship of the research communities requires providing them access to adequate, appropriate underground research facilities.
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Foremost, a large neutrino oscillation experiment in this country could be coupled with the present and future capabilities of the Fermilab accelerator complex, which would provide an intense neutrino beam at a suitably long baseline, making the United States a world leader in neutrino physics. At present, no other location in the world offers a fully competitive combination of future neutrino intensity and an appropriate underground site for a very large neutrino detector.
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It could accommodate one of the large direct detection dark matter experiments and one of the large neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments that are needed by the international effort to delve into these critical scientific issues, while sharing infrastructure among the three experiments, which are of comparable import. It could also host and share infrastructure with other underground physics experiments, such as an accelerator to study nuclear astrophysics, and with underground experiments in other fields.
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