The NOvA detector

Submitted by Rachel Williams, Black Hills State University, Class of 2017

Davis-Bahcall Scholar's log, star date 92083.04. 

NOvA far detector! Alrighty, so NOvA was probably my favorite experiment to see before going to FermiLab and Argonne. This off-axis neutrino experiment located in Ash River, Minnesota (very close to the Canadian border) was honestly a surprise to myself and the others. From the outside, it just looks like a long building with granite boulders over most of it... however the surprise was inside. We didn't really realize until we entered that it was quite deep into the ground.

So a little bit about the experiment; the NOvA far detector was constructed as the follow up/sibling neutrino experiment to MINOS (located at the 27th level in the Soudan Mine). The far detector is 810 km away from Fermilab's Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) and it's purpose is to determine mixing angles, CP-violating phase, and the neutrino mass hierarchy through observing the oscillation of muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos. 

With 10782 modules, this plastic structure filled with a scintillator oil marks the largest plastic structure in the world. It's huge! "I was amazed at how massive it was." Fellow scholar-mate Allison Van Horn mentioned afterwards, "It was so technical; like a million piece jigsaw puzzle, with oil scintillator, physical rigging, data acquisition, and everything else." Personally, I also thought it was awesome that it was constructed largely by undergrads; to be able to get that much experience as an undergraduate is very helpful and impressive on future resumes.

All in all, NOvA was very surprising and interesting, but makes us all very excited for the LBNE coming to our doorstep back home, and all the opportunities it could bring forth.
Onward to more science!