DUMAND Project

The DUMAND Project (Deep Underwater Muon And Neutrino Detector Project) was a proposed underwater <a href="/facts/Neutrino_telescope/LwtyrVAc">neutrino telescope</a> to be built in the <a href="/facts/Pacific_Ocean/bdxgXRVM">Pacific Ocean</a>, off the shore of the <a href="/facts/Hawaii_(island)/6CeBU0t6">island of Hawaii</a>, five kilometers beneath the surface. It would have included thousands of strings of instruments occupying a cubic kilometer of the <a href="/facts/Ocean/8W8lYgjD">ocean</a>.

The proposal called for two types of detectors: <a href="/facts/Optical_detector/7cSkXS6s">optical detectors</a> to find the <a href="/facts/Cherenkov_radiation/lSPJAC3U">Cherenkov radiation</a> emitted by secondary particles traveling faster than the <a href="/facts/Speed_of_light/sKSQwdNx">speed of light</a> in water, resulting from collisions by <a href="/facts/Neutrino/yGWVfSg2">neutrinos</a>, and <a href="/facts/Hydrophone/yLwe7VYY">hydrophones</a> to listen for the acoustic signals generated by the interactions. Sophisticated <a href="/facts/Signal_processing/Npaja6zb">signal processing</a> would have combined the signals from many optical and acoustic sensors, allowing scientists to determine the direction from which the neutrino arrived, and to rule out <a href="/facts/False_positive/jkC44hML">false signals</a> arising from other <a href="/facts/Subatomic_particle/tMEzcTWQ">particles</a> or acoustic sources. Because of the <a href="/facts/Weak_interaction/f6upmKMs">nature of the interaction</a> between neutrinos and protons, DUMAND would have been most sensitive to <a href="/facts/Neutrino/yGWVfSg2">ultra-high energy neutrinos</a>, and completely insensitive to <a href="/facts/Solar_neutrino/IETdGDoj">solar neutrinos</a>.
Work began in about 1976, at <a href="/facts/Keahole_Point/gbShURFP">Keahole Point</a>, but the project cancelled in 1995 due to technical difficulties. Although it was never completed, DUMAND was in a sense a precursor of the <a href="/facts/Antarctic_Muon_And_Neutrino_Detector_Array/Lrv5B8QK">Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array</a> (AMANDA), and the water Cherenkov neutrino telescopes in the <a href="/facts/Mediterranean/Vr2pzVbM">Mediterranean</a> (<a href="/facts/ANTARES_(telescope)/P38cK1BS">ANTARES</a>, <a href="/facts/Neutrino_Mediterranean_Observatory/g62hDqFV">NEMO</a> and the <a href="/facts/NESTOR_Project/J5Yr50YQ">NESTOR Project</a>). The DUMAND hardware was also donated to NESTOR, to reduce costs and cut on development and construction time.

DUMAND Project open-in-new

DUMAND Project