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DONUT (Direct Observation of the NU Tau, E872) was an experiment at Fermilab dedicated to the search for tau neutrino interactions. The detector operated during a few months in the summer of 1997, and successfully detected the tau neutrino.〔 〕 It confirmed the existence of the last lepton predicted by the Standard Model.〔 〕 The data from the experiment was also used to put an upper limit on the tau neutrino magnetic moment〔 〕 and measure its interaction cross section.〔 〕 == Principle == In DONUT, protons accelerated by the Tevatron were used to produce tau neutrinos via decay of charmed mesons. After eliminating as many unwanted background particles as possible by a system of magnets and bulk matter (mostly iron and concrete), the beam passed through several sheets of nuclear emulsion. In very rare cases one of the neutrinos would interact in the detector, producing electrically charged particles which left visible tracks in the emulsion and could be electronically registered by a system of scintillators and drift chambers.〔 Using the electronic information, possible neutrino interactions were identified and selected for further analysis. This meant photographically developing the emulsion sheets so any traces left by particles passing through them would show up as a small black dot. By connecting these dots across subsequent sheets, the path that each particle had taken was reconstructed and likely neutrino interactions identified. The characteristic properties of tau neutrino interactions were that several tracks suddenly appeared without any leading up to them and that one of those tracks would show a "kink" after a few millimeters, indicating decay of a tau lepton.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「DONUT」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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