The Super-K detector






The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project is a giant survey telescope that will be located in Chile and is designed to make a three
dimensional survey of the entire visible sky. The LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration will examine billions of galaxies and try to determine the nature of the mysterious “Dark Energy” which is unaccountably causing the universe to be pushed apart at a faster and faster rate.

The LSST will open a whole new field of observational cosmology by collecting an unprecedented amount of data and addressing some of the most fundamental questions we have about space-time including the nature of gravity, dark energy, dark matter and inflation. In 2010 a panel convened by the National Research Council for the National Academy of Sciences ranked LSST as its top priority for the next large ground-based astronomical facility. LSST will survey the entire visible sky with a level detail and distance that has never been achieved before











Duke at Super-K

Super-K is located near Toyama city in Japan.  In fact, Toyama is a sister city of Durham . Home to Toyama bay, firefly squid and excellent Buri, you can be there in a short 20 hours from Durham!

Members of the group make frequent trips to the experiment and some are based there.  We have been and are involved in both the physical construction and maintenance of the experiment, and data analysis from both Super-K and T2K.




The Helium and Lead Observatory (HALO) is a dedicated supernova neutrino detector that is presently under construction underground at SNOLAB in the Creighton Mine in Sudbury Ontario Canada.

It uses 76 tonnes of annular lead blocks instrumented with 128 tubular Helium-3 neutron detectors to detect neutrinos from supernovae within our galaxy. As a part of the worldwide Supernova Early Warning System (SNEWS), it will help detect supernovae by their neutrino burst, before their light reaches Earth, allowing time to notify both professional and amateur astronomers.



World Wide, several detectors currently running or nearing completion are sensitive to a core collapse supernova neutrino signal in the Milky Way. The neutrino signal emerges promptly from a supernova’s core, whereas it may take hours for the first photons to be visible. Therefore, the detection of the neutrino burst from the next Galactic supernova can provide an early warning for astronomers. Putting several detectors in coincidence can provide the astronomical community with a very high confidence early warning of the supernova’s occurrence. In addition, the SNEWS alarm may be able to serve as a trigger for detectors which are not able to trigger on a supernova signal by themselves, allowing extra data to be saved.
