Japan’s Next Neutrino Hunter Could Revolutionize Particle Physics

Japan’s Next Neutrino Hunter Could Revolutionize Particle Physics

Japan approved construction for the world’s next largest neutrino detector. So what can we expect from it?

Japan announced its next generation neutrino detector, Hyper-Kamiokande, and it is enormous. Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) will hold 260,000 tonnes of ultrapure water—more than five times the amount contained by its already enormous sibling, the Super-Kamiokande.

The size of the Hyper-Kamiokande will allow it to detect unprecedented numbers of neutrinos produced by various sources — including cosmic rays, the Sun, supernovae and beams artificially produced by an existing particle accelerator.

In addition to catching neutrinos, Hyper-K will monitor the water for the possible spontaneous decay of protons in atomic nuclei, which, if observed, would be a revolutionary discovery.

So what are the next steps when it comes to the development of the neutrino hunter? Find out that and more in this Elements.