Kenneth Lande

My research focus is in astrophysics. Two experimental programs are underway; one concentrates on the investigation of energy generating fusion reactions in the core of the sun by measuring the energy spectrum and time dependence of the neutrinos emitted in these fusion processes, and a second one studies very high-energy cosmic rays impinging on the Earth. The solar neutrino program, which is carried out with Professor Raymond Davis of the Astronomy Department, utilizes a 610 ton detector in the Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota and a 60 ton Gallium detector at the Baksan Observatory in the Soviet Union. Additional detectors for both Homestake and Baksan are now under development. The Homestake detector has been monitoring the sun for almost two decades. During that time it has experimentally demonstrated that the sun is powered by the fusion of hydrogen into helium, found that the observed neutrino flux is about 1/3 that predicted by existing models of the solar core temperature and composition, and found indications that the solar neutrino studies of these features will be carried out in the coming years.