Mark Ross-Lonergan, an assistant professor at Columbia University, has been elected co-spokesperson for MicroBooNE — a major neutrino experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and an essential part of the lab’s neutrino research program.
Joining current MicroBooNE co-spokesperson Justin Evans of the University of Manchester, Ross-Lonergan takes over for Matt Toups, who recently completed his term. Spokespeople for large scientific collaborations help set research priorities, keep experiments running smoothly and represent the teams to the outside world. MicroBooNE brings together approximately 190 scientists from 40 institutions worldwide.
“Getting to work even more closely with all the amazing students, postdocs and colleagues that make up MicroBooNE is incredibly exciting,” said Ross-Lonergan. “This experiment helped build me into the physicist, and the person, I am today, and I’m really happy to have the chance to give back to the collaboration as we enter the next chapter.”
The MicroBooNE detector was designed to study neutrinos — tiny, nearly massless particles that pass through ordinary matter almost undetected. To track them, MicroBooNE used 170 tons of liquid argon chilled to nearly minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit. When a neutrino happened to collide with an argon atom in the detector, it produced a burst of charged particles. Those particles left trails in the liquid argon that the detector could record in fine detail.
This technology, known as a liquid-argon time projection chamber, allows scientists to identify exactly what kind of particle is being detected and where it came from — like watching the wake left by a boat on calm water and identifying the type of boat that created the wake.
“This experiment helped build me into the physicist, and the person, I am today, and I’m really happy to have the chance to give back to the collaboration as we enter the next chapter.”
Mark Ross-Lonergan, MicroBooNE co-spokesperson
Since beginning data collection in October 2015 as part of the Short-Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab, MicroBooNE was the first large-scale detector of its kind to compile an extensive record of neutrino interactions on a neutrino beamline, advancing scientists’ understanding of how the liquid-argon technology performs at scale.
One of MicroBooNE’s central goals is to follow up on a puzzling result from an earlier experiment called MiniBooNE. That experiment, also hosted at Fermilab, detected more particle interactions than expected — a statistical excess significant enough that it suggested the potential existence of new physics. However, scientists were unable to determine whether the extra signal came from electrons or from single photons. That distinction matters because each would point to a completely different explanation.
The MicroBooNE detector was built specifically to distinguish between these two possibilities. A recent study published in the journal Nature found that electrons are likely not the source. But ruling out photons is more challenging, and the question remains open.
While the MicroBooNE detector is no longer operating, scientists are now analyzing the extensive data that was collected. Ross-Lonergan notes the collaboration’s next major result — which utilizes nearly twice as much data and improved analysis methods — should provide a much clearer answer.
“MicroBooNE has achieved a lot over the past 10 years and produced some remarkable results, but we are by no means done.”
Mark Ross-Lonergan, MicroBooNE co-spokesperson
MicroBooNE also served as a proving ground for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, a much larger future project that will use liquid-argon detectors weighing thousands of tons. Lessons learned from MicroBooNE and the broader Short-Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab — including advances in computing algorithms, detector hardware and machine learning techniques — are feeding into DUNE’s design.
Ross-Lonergan is optimistic about what’s ahead in MicroBooNE’s search for undiscovered particles that could link neutrinos to dark matter.
“MicroBooNE has achieved a lot over the past 10 years and produced some remarkable results, but we are by no means done,” he said. “I genuinely believe the next 10 years will prove to be every bit as fruitful and exciting as the last.”
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is America’s national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. Fermi Forward Discovery Group manages Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Visit Fermilab’s website at www.fnal.gov and follow us on social media.
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