Neutrino Count Level Debated

Neutrino Count Level Debated

For 15 years, Dr. Raymond Davis Jr.’s 100,000 gallon neutrino telescope has yielded low particle count levels, touching off speculation and concern about the reliability of the solar energy model. Four recent data runs at the neutrino “telescope” (in a mine beneath Lead, S.D.) have returned neutrino counts that approach the predicted levels. Optimistic observers greeted the news with statements that Davis’s equipment was at fault in the past and the mystery of the missed neutrinos is now solved.Davis disagrees with both conclusions. Refinements in the efficiency of detected argon nuclei (produced by the interaction of neutrinos and chlorine atoms) have increased the detection rate, but the change in efficiency has been corrected for. Also, the unprecedented high levels, David told Science News, are merely part of the expected statistical fluctuations. The predicted flux of solar neutrinos, he feels, is not yet warranted.

Davis hopes to build a neutrino detector containing 20 tons ($60 million worth) of gallium. His detector uses a relatively cheap dry cleaning fluid sensitive to high energy neutrinos. Gallium would probably increase detection rates since it is sensitive to the low energy neutrinos generated by the primary burning process held in the sun’s core.

Aliens. What is it? – I don’t know but just play dead and maybe it will go away.

A number of theories suggest there are fluctuations in the sun’s neutrino output, but Davis believes there is little likelihood that such a variation exists. There is a slight possibility of an 18 month period in the sun’s nuclear output, but this has not yet been established.

The neutrino detector is buried underground to shield it from virtually all particles except neutrinos.