Over the last decade, since the discovery of finite, non-zero neutrino mass through their oscillations over the solar and atmospheric distance and energy scales— the first evidence of physics beyond the standard model — much has been learned about elusive world of neutrinos. Yet much remains to be learned. NOvA is poised to make seminal measurements of neutrino properties that will answer questions of whether neutrinos are a source for the Matter/Anti-matter asymmetry of the universe.

The NOvA experiments consists of two independent detectors separated by 810 km. At Fermilab is the Near Detector, which counts the number of neutrinos produced by the Fermilab accelerator. The Far Detector is sited in northern Minnesota near the US/Canadian border, and is 14 mrad away from the primary beam axis, in what is referred to as the "off-axis" configuration. This choice of site location and baseline is what allows NOvA to perform precisions measurements of &theta₁₃ and &theta₂₃. The Far Detector, at a massive 15,000 tons, will be the largest liquid scintillator calorimeter ever build, indeed the largest plastic structure ever built, and has been designed to search for electron neutrino appearance in the Fermilab muon neutrino beam.

Construction of the NOvA experiment started in May of 2009 and the first set of physics data is expected from the Near Detector in earl 2011. The construction of the Far Detector will continue in parallel with the Near Detector operation and will become fully operational in 2013 at its full mass of 15,000 tons.

Virginia's role on NOvA

The Virginia group is responsible for all aspects of two critical components of the NOvA detectors: the Power Distribution System that provides power to all of the detector electronics, and the Detector Controls and Monitoring Systems that runs and monitors the detectors. Two of each system need to be fabricated: one for the Near Detector and one for the Far Detector. The Near Detector systems have been installed and commissioned and are running smoothly. We are receiving about $2.5M from the U.S. Department of Energy to carry out this work.

Virginia's lead role in PDS

Virginia's lead role in DCS

The Mu2e experiment is part of the broad new initiative in particle physics to establish cutting edge physics program at the intensity frontier which will give us new understanding into physics beyond the standard model, and will firmly place Fermilab as the leader in the next generation of high intensity and precision measurements.

Mu2e was received Stage-1 approval by Fermilab in November, 2008 and CD-0 approval in August of 2009. The Mu2e collaboration is currently working on detailed designs of the beamline and magnet systems, and on critical simulation and designs of the detector components to extend the scope and reach of the experiment.

Virginia's role on Mu2e
The Virginia group is involved in the electromagnetic calorimeter and the cosmic ray veto shield. Craig Dukes serves as head of the Institutional Board and was editor of the experimental proposal. Andrew Norman serves on the background task-force, and is involved the in the software and simulation efforts.

The CP violation analysis showed no evidence of any matter-antimatter asymmetry at the 10^-4 level, a two order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity. This implies that there are probably no exotic sources of CP violation in hyperon decays. Among other results we have observed the rarest baryon decay ever, Σ → pμ μ, and find hints that it may proceed via a hitherto unknown intermediate state that some have suggested could be the sgoldstino, a supersymmetric particle, or perhaps the Higgs.

Virginia's role on HyperCP The Virginia group played a seminal role in the fabrication of the spectrometer, designing and building: the upstream wire chambers, the hadronic calorimeter, the proton hodoscope, the triggers, and all 20,000 channels of preamplifiers. All of the CP violation analyzes were done by Virginia, and indeed all of the precision measurements.