From WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, June 5, 2018: A team of physicists announced findings that could reveal the existence of a mysterious new type of particle known as a sterile neutrino. The finding by Fermilab’s MiniBooNE happens to come with several Chicago connections.
In the news
From Seeker, June 17, 2018: The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment wants to solve one of the biggest mysteries in science today, namely, why do we exist? Fermilab scientist Bonnie Fleming appears in this 6-minute explainer video.
From New Scientist, June 12, 2018: NOvA has confirmed that antineutrinos oscillate, detecting muon antineutrinos morphing into electron antineutrinos with more certainty than we’ve ever had before.
From Science, June 4, 2018: Don’t toss out your particle physics textbooks just yet. A team of particle physicists, including MiniBooNE collaborators, announced results that could point to an exotic new particle called a sterile neutrino. But the situation is more ambiguous than some reports suggest. Although the new data bolster one argument for the sterile neutrino, other evidence has weakened significantly in recent years.
From UPI, June 4, 2018: Fermilab Deputy Director Joe Lykken says that “deeply understanding how the Higgs interacts with known particles could help lead us to physics beyond the Standard Model.”
From Live Science, June 4, 2018: Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln writes about two new results on how scientists found the Higgs boson popping up along with the heaviest particle ever discovered. The results could help us better understand one of the most fundamental problems in physics — why matter has mass.
From Gizmodo, June 4, 2018: Last year, a paper cast doubt on the existence of a sterile neutrino. But a new report from scientists at MiniBooNE provides even more evidence for the particle.
From Black Hills Pioneer, June 4, 2018: Mike Headley, South Dakota Science and Technology Authority executive director and laboratory director, and Josh Willhite, Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility far site manager for the Sanford Underground Research Facility, updated the public on the progress being made on DUNE taking place at Fermilab in Illinois.
From Science News, June 6, 2018: A shadowy hypothetical process called “dark fusion” could be occurring throughout the cosmos, says physicist Sam McDermott of Fermilab.
From BBC News, June 6, 2018: The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab may have found hints of a new particle. Specifically, the data may hint at a previously undetected form of neutrino, known as a “sterile neutrino.”