Super-Kamiokande is a 50,000 ton water Cerenkov detector located at a depth of 2700 meters water equivalent in the Kamioka Mozumi mine in Japan.
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Image courtesy of the University of Maryland
The Super Kamiokande
Super-Kamiokande is a water Cerenkov detector located in the
Kamioka Mozumi mine in Japan. Its use includes proton decay studies, neutrino detection
(from the Sun, the atmosphere and supernovae) and muon detection from cosmic
rays. It is the world's largest
underground neutrino detector experiment (built under a joint Japan-US collaboration).
Super-Kamiokande is a big
cylindrical tank
filled with water. Its dimensions are about 40 m in diameter and 40 m in
height. The (
walls are covered with (about 13,000)
photomultiplier tubes (PMT's).
These are very sensitive devices that produce an electrical signal
when they detect light. Their sensitivity is so high that
they can detect a single photon.
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