Super-Kamiokande is a 50,000 ton water Cerenkov detector located at a depth of 2700 meters water equivalent in the Kamioka Mozumi mine in Japan.
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Image courtesy of the University of Maryland

The Super Kamiokande

Super-Kamiokande is a water Cerenkov detector located in the Kamioka Mozumi mine in Japan. Its use includes proton decay studies, neutrino detection (from the Sun, the atmosphere and supernovae) and muon detection from cosmic rays. It is the world's largest underground neutrino detector experiment (built under a joint Japan-US collaboration).

Super-Kamiokande is a big cylindrical tank filled with water. Its dimensions are about 40 m in diameter and 40 m in height. The ( walls are covered with (about 13,000) photomultiplier tubes (PMT's).

These are very sensitive devices that produce an electrical signal when they detect light. Their sensitivity is so high that they can detect a single photon.


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