Physics Goals of SuperKamiokande SuperKamiokande is a large-volume water Cerenkov detector located in a mine near Toyama, Japan. It will be used to study incoming neutrinos.
Neutrinos are elementary particles which are a product of nuclear fusion reactions in stars.
Previous measurements of solar neutrino experiments have found fewer neutrinos than predicted by a model of solar nuclear fusion processes. Observation of such an effect would imply that there are significant new undiscovered aspects of elementary particle interactions. The SuperKamiokande experiment will make precise measurements of the neutrino energy spectrum and compare it to what is expected if there are neutrino oscillations. A study of neutrinos produced by high energy cosmic ray interactions in the earth's atmosphere. Detection and measurement of neutrinos from supernovas which occur in our galaxy during the running period of the experiment.