SNOLAB is a deep underground research facility, hosted 2km
beneath the surface of the Earth in a working mine at Creighton, near
Sudbury, Ontario. Initially the site of the Sudbury Neutrino
Observatory, which unambiguously demonstrated flavour-change
in neutrinos created in the fusion process of the Sun, SNOLAB now hosts
a multi-disciplinary programme. Why do we need to go to such great
depths to probe the Universe?
Several of the major questions studied in contemporary
astro-particle and sub-atomic physics, such as the search for the
Galactic dark matter, and studies of neutrino properties, require the
ultra-quiet radiation environment afforded by such deep
underground facilities. In these facilities, the cosmic radiation
induced backgrounds in the detection systems are reduced to a manageable
level, with additional shielding from natural ambient radioactivity and
low background construction of detector systems.
This talk will provide an overview of the science programme at SNOLAB,
will review the detector systems used for these studies, and outline
future plans for the facility.