Hyperkamiokande
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Lee Thompson (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Hosokawa K
(2023)
Development of ultra-pure gadolinium sulfate for the Super-Kamiokande gadolinium project
in Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Scovell P
(2024)
Ultra-low background germanium assay at the Boulby Underground Laboratory
in Journal of Instrumentation
Thiesse M
(2024)
PocketWATCH: design and operation of a multi-use test bed for water Cherenkov detector components in pure and gadolinium loaded water
in Journal of Instrumentation
Thiesse M
(2022)
Background shielding by dense samples in low-level gamma spectrometry.
in Applied radiation and isotopes : including data, instrumentation and methods for use in agriculture, industry and medicine
| Description | We have developed and fully characterised calibration sources that are capable of injecting short-duration light flashes into a water Cerenkov detector. We have developed a test regime for determining the radiopurity of gadolinium sulphate samples. We have a better understanding of how a detector such as HyperK may observe neutrinos from a supernova and also possibly say something about the underlying astrophysics that drives the supernova. |
| Exploitation Route | Our findings will largely feed into further work on water Cerenkov detectors. However, indirectly, some of our findings have guided and influenced the calibration strategy for the US-UK AIT/WATCHMAN project and it's successor (to be named) which is planning to build a similar detector for nuclear non-proliferation studies. In addition Stowell is exploring the use of Water Cherenkov technologies to make low cost space weather monitors to detector large coronal mass ejections. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Security and Diplomacy |
| Description | Know-how acquired via the HyperK (and T2K and SuperK) projects has been applied successfully to the request for funding to the WATCHMAN/AIT project which may educate nuclear non-proliferation policy in the future. Expertise in scintillator has also educated the formation of a recent spin-out company, Geoptic. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Construction,Environment,Security and Diplomacy |
| Title | Water Tank Characterisation Facility |
| Description | Established an ultra-pure water tank calibration facility for testing light sources and photomultipliers in the Sheffield neutron labs. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Performed testing of light injector systems for the HK experiment (full scanning campaign currently ongoing). |
| Description | Collaboration with SuperKamiokande (SuperK) Collaboration |
| Organisation | Super-Kamiokande |
| Country | Japan |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Selected members of the UK HyperKamiokande team, including Lee Thompson and Andrew Cole from Sheffield joined SuperK in January 2016. We are working with members of the SuperK EGADS team on measuring the activity of Gadolinium samples at the so-called Boulby Underground Germanium Suite (BUGS) at STFC's Boulby Underground Lab. There are also plans to use SuperK as a testbench ofr some of the HyperK calibration work that we are involved in. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in calibration. Production of Gd samples. Expertise in handing and measurement of Gd samples. |
| Impact | Work is ongoing, no direct impact yet. |
| Start Year | 2016 |