page_title: Homestake experiment
hierarchical_section_title: Homestake experiment
caption_attribution_description: THE UNDERGROUND TANK WHERE BROOKHAVEN'S SOLAR NEUTRINO EXPERIMENT TOOK PLACE. THE NEUTRINO INTERACTIONS IN BROOKHAVEN'S SOLAR NEUTRINO EXPERIMENT TOOK PLACE IN THIS MASSIVE TANK, ONE MILE UNDERGROUND IN THE HOMESTAKE GOLD MINE IN SOUTH DAKOTA. BROOKHAVEN SCIENTIST RAYMOND DAVIS WON THE 2002 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS FOR HIS WORK IN DETECTING SOLAR NEUTRINOS, THE GHOSTLIKE PARTICLES PRODUCED IN THE NUCLEAR REACTIONS OCCURRING IN THE CORE OF THE SUN, PROVIDING THE SUN'S ENERGY. For more information or additional images, please contact 202-586-5251.
context_page_description: The Homestake experiment was an experiment headed by astrophysicists Raymond Davis, Jr. and John N. Bahcall in the late 1960s. Its purpose was to collect and count neutrinos emitted by nuclear fusion taking place in the Sun. Bahcall performed the theoretical calculations and Davis designed the experiment. After Bahcall calculated the rate at which the detector should capture neutrinos, Davis's experiment turned up only one third of this figure. The experiment was the first to successfully detect and count solar neutrinos, and the discrepancy in results created the solar neutrino problem. The experiment operated continuously from 1970 until 1994. The University of Pennsylvania took it over in 1984. The discrepancy between the predicted and measured rates of neutrino detection was later found to be due to neutrino "flavour" oscillations.
context_section_description: The Homestake experiment (sometimes referred to as the Davis experiment and in original literature called Brookhaven Solar Neutrino Experiment or Brookhaven ³⁷Cl Experiment) was an experiment headed by astrophysicists Raymond Davis, Jr. and John N. Bahcall in the late 1960s. Its purpose was to collect and count neutrinos emitted by nuclear fusion taking place in the Sun. Bahcall performed the theoretical calculations and Davis designed the experiment. After Bahcall calculated the rate at which the detector should capture neutrinos, Davis's experiment turned up only one third of this figure. The experiment was the first to successfully detect and count solar neutrinos, and the discrepancy in results created the solar neutrino problem. The experiment operated continuously from 1970 until 1994. The University of Pennsylvania took it over in 1984. The discrepancy between the predicted and measured rates of neutrino detection was later found to be due to neutrino "flavour" oscillations.
caption: The underground tank of the Homestake experiment when the basin around the tank has not yet been flooded.
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