Speaker
Motoyasu Ikeda
(Kamioka Obs. ICRR. U of Tokyo)
Description
Super-Kamiokande (SK) is the world's largest underground water Cherenkov
detector. The latest phase of operations began in July 2020 when, in order
to improve neutron detection efficiency, about 13 tons of gadolinium (Gd)
sulfate octahydrate was dissolved into SK's pure water. Gd has a large
thermal neutron capture cross section and emits visible gamma rays. This
first loading marked the start of what is now called SK-Gd, and stable
physics data taking has been ongoing since then.
This presentation will focus on details of the first Gd loading and the
detector status including detector calibrations. Also, the future plan and
the prospect of observations with SK-Gd will be discussed.
Primary author
Motoyasu Ikeda
(Kamioka Obs. ICRR. U of Tokyo)
