Go, and Catch A Falling Neutrino

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Go, and Catch A Falling Neutrino In
BOREXINO Prof. Raju Raghavan
Department of Physics Colloquium, Pamplin 2030,
September 7, 07
Borexino, a 1400 ton scintillator experiment
installed in the Gran Sasso Underground
Laboratory in Italy by a 100- member
International Collaboration (including VT) has
directly observed neutrinos from the decay of 7Be
in the sun. This is the first real-time
spectroscopic observation of neutrinos below 1
MeV and represents a tour de force in the quest
to probe in great detail how the sun generates
energy. I will describe the foundations of
Borexino, how it was built over the last 20
years, how extraordinarily high barriers of
background were overcome by its remarkable
detector design, how the solar signal detection
works in Borexino and the significance of the
first results for the interior of the sun and
for neutrino phenomenology. I will close with a
prognosis of things to come .