Why is Japan building a 260 million liter reservoir in the mountain?

At a depth of 600 meters below the surface of a mountain in Japan, in a former mine, a cylindrical cavity is being constructed 260 million liters of ultra-pure water should understand. However, the cave, which is 71 meters high and 68 meters wide, is not used to supply water. It is also not a pumped storage power plant. Instead, in the so-called Hyper kamiokande The smallest particles in the universe are investigated: Neutrinos.

A faint glow in the water

Microparticles, billions of which fly through the human body and entire planets every second, are released when they collide with the atomic components of transparent media. Cherenkov radiation Off, a very faint glow. This happens all the time in a large water tank. See at Hyper Kamiokande 40,000 highly sensitive light sensors There is, too.

Hyper-Kamiokande is already the third facility of its kind in Japan and the largest ever. It is being built by the University of Tokyo and the research organization KEK, and the project is supported by 22 countries. Germany is there, as is Switzerland, But not Austria. The neutrino radiation that hits the giant detector comes from the universe, especially from the sun, and the experiments are also conducted with a terrestrial source.

Artificial particle beam through the ground

There is one at the JPARC research facility on the east coast of Japan, about 300 kilometers away Particle acceleratorWhich can produce neutrinos that are fired directly across the crustal curve of Hyper-Kamiokande. With the giant detector, researchers want to learn more about the difference between… Neutrinos and antineutrinosAnd also about Proton decay Discover.

➤ Read more: The new particle accelerator should only need half the power

In addition, the neutrinos that occur through them should be detected Supernova star explosions arise. All results should serve to explain history and history The evolution of the universe To understand better.