Detectors for the MINOS long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment

The MINOS long-baseline experiment will use an intense neutrino beam, generatet by Fermilab's main injector accelerator, and a 730 km flight path to search for neutrino oscillations. The 10000 ton MINOS far detector will utilise toroidally magnetized steel plates interleaved with track chambers to reconstruct event topologies and to measure the energies of the muons, hadrons and electromagnetic showers produced by neutrino interactions. The MINOS collaboration is currently developing three alternative technologies for the track chambers: 'Iarocci' tubes (operated in either limited streamer or saturated proportional mode), RPC's (with either glass or ABS plates), and scintillator (either liquid or plastic) with wavelength shifting fiber readout. The technology choice will be made in mid 1997 based on the projected performance and cost of the 32000 m2 active detector system. (orig.)