Penn prof studies neutrinos

Penn Physics Professor Eugene Beier is one of many scientists now looking beneath the Earth's surface for answers to questions about the sky above. Beier, 59, is one of the creators of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory -- a Canada-based observatory dedicated to collecting information about subatomic particles called neutrinos -- that began collecting its first data last week. Electron neutrinos are emitted by the Sun during nuclear fusion and provide clues about the composition of our solar system's only star. The unique observatory is intended to detect neutrinos created in the Sun and the Earth's atmosphere in an effort to better understand the workings of the Sun and the universe in general, Beier said yesterday. SNO -- located 2,000 meters below the Earth's surface in a nickel mine in Sudbury, Ontario -- was created through the joint efforts of nearly 100 scientists from 11 universities and laboratories in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, according to a statement released last week. "How neutrinos behave? determines how heavy elements are produced in the galaxy," Beier said. "And that tells us something about the chemical evolution of the galaxy." Neutrinos created in the Sun travel to Earth, where they can be observed through their interactions with water. Although neutrino telescopes traditionally use purified water to study the particles, the SNO observatory is the first in the world to use heavy water instead, Beier said. According to Beier, the use of heavy water will allow scientists to distinguish between the several different types of neutrinos, only one of which comes from the Sun to the Earth. "What we're trying to do is understand the way the Sun loses its energy," Beier said. Beier worked on a similar project in Japan ten years ago that did not use heavy water. Beier said that distinguishing between different types of neutrinos is an important step in determining exactly what happens to the particles on their way from the Sun. "Neutrinos may be able to change into other types of neutrinos as they propagate through space," Beier said. Beier explained that, in the past, scientists have detected fewer neutrinos than they had predicted. "The neutrino emission by the sun as measured on Earth seems to be much smaller than what stellar evolution models predict," Beier said. But the new observatory should help scientists understand if those small numbers are due to the changing of neutrinos in space, Beier said. The project's creators have been developing the observatory since 1984. Construction began on the telescope in 1990, Beier said. "This is tremendously exciting," SNO Institute Director Art McDonald said in a statement released last week. "It is 15 years since the starts of the SNO project, and to see such clear examples of neutrino interactions within days of finally turning on was a real triumph for the entire SNO team." Beier, who has been a Penn professor since 1967, said that he has been interested in the interactions of neutrinos for his entire career. "Starting in the late '60s, all the most interesting questions were in studying neutrinos, at least as far as I was concerned," Beier said. Beier said past research indicates that "neutrinos contribute at least as much as stars or approximately as much as stars" to the mass of the universe. "So it's one of the steps in trying to understand what's in the universe," Beier said.

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