A Workshop on Neutrino Geoscience will be held in September 2008 at SNOLab (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Laboratory). This 2.5-day meeting will have geology and particle physics talks focused on recent developments in global and Canadian geology, and geoneutrino experiments at SNO (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory), KamLAND and Borexino. There will be ~60 participants, with roughly equal representation from both communities. There will be a tour of the SNO underground facility, including a view of the SNO+ experimental environment. This meeting will engage the North American geological and particle physics communities in an effort to foster collaborative research. The particle physics community seeks feedback and insights from the geological community in regards to knowledge about the K, Th and U content in the nearest 500 km radius, half-spherical volume beneath the SNO+ detector. The meeting organizers include Drs. Mark Chen (Queens University, Ontario, Canada), Claude Jaupart (University of Paris, France), Bill McDonough (University of Maryland, USA) and Roberta Rudnick (University of Maryland, USA).
Significant progress has been made in exploiting the practical utility of antineutrino detection for geological and nonproliferation purposes, in particular, reactor monitoring. Despite these remarkable successes, these inter-related communities have had only modest overlap. As a result, the fields of applied and basic antineutrino physics lack an overarching strategy that would allow efficient exploitation of the resources and strengths provided by each stakeholder. This workshop aims to develop the basis for such a strategic alignment of interests between the fundamental and applied antineutrino physics communities, including geosciences.
Broader Impact: The geonneutrino signal represents a background contribution to a global antineutrino signal, which also includes contributions from nuclear reactors and weapons related nuclear materials. Thus, understanding in detail the geoneutrino contributes greatly to the viability of antineutrino detection for nuclear nonproliferation purposes. Some applications are potentially important to maintaining a safe society that uses such nuclear materials.
Intellectual Merit: The importance of this workshop will be to unite disparate groups of multi-disciplinary scientists with shared goals in antineutrino detection research and applications. A goal of the workshop is to develop stronger bonds of communications between these fields. This step is necessary in order to fully understand the various the components of an antineutrino spectrum and identify correctly the sources of the signal.
