| Two UH physics professors were on hand for a groundbreaking at a nuclear facility near Hong Kong last month to kick off one of the largest cooperative scientific projects between the United States and China.
The Daya Bay Collaboration – a project seeking to unlock the mystery of subatomic particles known as neutrinos –comprises 35 institutions, including the University of Houston.
Recently, scientists have found that neutrinos, previously thought to be totally devoid of any mass, do in fact have a tiny amount of mass. The Daya Bay effort to learn more about neutrinos could help scientists understand why antimatter is largely missing from the universe. The absence of antimatter makes our existence possible.
Professor Kwong Lau and Lawrence Pinsky, physics department chair, attended the Oct. 13 groundbreaking ceremony in the Guangdong province of southern China. Lau is the principal investigator for the project at UH.
Three experimental halls connected by long tunnels will be excavated inside mountains near the Daya Bay nuclear power plant, which will be the source of the antineutrinos to be studied in the experiment.
Each hall will feature a 10-meter deep pool of water, within which the neutrino detectors will be deployed. The water protects the detectors from radiation that could interfere with measurements.
The project is supported by both Chinese and U.S. government agencies. |
