[time-nuts] Neutrino timing
Tom Van Baak
tvb at LeapSecond.com
Mon Oct 24 23:08:20 UTC 2011
> I am not familiar with the experiment, so I have to ask some dumb questions:
Ed,
Or, you could say "I am not familiar with the experiment, so I have
to spend a few minutes to find out for myself" ;-)
There are numerous popular articles about the issue. If you are
technically inclined read the original paper here:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897
The PDF file is
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1109.4897v1
Or start with the CERN press release:
http://public.web.cern.ch/press/pressreleases/Releases2011/PR19.11E.html
In addition you can find many details on the timing system at:
http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cngs-time-transfer/wiki
> First, I wonder how the "beam" is generated at the source, and then
They come in bursts as you suggested.
> The next question is whether that 60 nSec or so measurement is
> "sharp," or is it the mean value of a large, wide distribution of
See the wonderful plots in the paper.
> The final question for now is how big is the detector? As I
The detector is not the liquid kind you're thinking of. But it is
very large with lots of detectors and calibrated delays.
Do a google image search for: OPERA Gran Sasso detector
Several high resolution photos are:
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/wp-content/uploads/OPERA-detector.jpg
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/opera.jpg
http://www.aspera-eu.org/images/stories/Media/MEDIAPICTURES/HR2/gran-sasso2.jpg
Finally this drawing nicely shows the scale too:
http://w3.iihe.ac.be/opera/detector-artistic2.jpg
(from the excellent page: http://w3.iihe.ac.be/opera/)
/tvb
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