These tracks show a six-muon event in the MINOS far detector. The MINOS detectors at Fermilab and in Soudan, Minnesota, were built to study neutrino oscillations over a vast distance. But it turns out that they are also powerful cosmic ray muon detectors. When a cosmic ray strikes an atom in the Earth’s atmosphere, it sets off a cascade of particle decay, creating kaons or pions, which in turn decay into muons. MINOS previously made the first deep measurement of…
The LBNE collaboration met at Fermilab last week. Photo: Cindy Arnold The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment, with more than 500 collaborators, is now the largest neutrino experiment collaboration in the world. In his opening address at last week’s collaboration meeting at Fermilab, LBNE co-spokesperson Robert Wilson reported that LBNE now counts 527 members from 90 institutions, including 139 from 35 institutions in eight non-U.S. countries. There were 159 registered participants at the July collaboration meeting, the largest attendance LBNE has enjoyed…