The search for the sterile neutrino

Cartoon of three balls in different shades of pink popping out of doors marked for the three different kinds of neutrinos: tau, muon and electron. To the right of them, three tiny scientists in white lab coats on scaffolding.

The search for the sterile neutrino

Back when it was theorized, scientists weren’t sure they would ever detect the neutrino. Now scientists, including some at Fermilab, are searching for a version of the particle that could be even more elusive.

Two crew members stand with the drill underground.

Drilling for neutrinos

Fermilab feature

Construction crews will excavate around 800,000 tons of rock to make space for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. But first, teams must carve out a quarter-mile-high ventilation shaft.

Two women stand side by side looking at an image of a red vessel in front of a long science experiment that takes up the rest of the photo. The woman with gray hair, on the right, and the woman with long brown hair on the left both hold the document with both hands.

Successful tests pave the way for Fermilab’s next-generation particle accelerator

Fermilab feature

This spring testing wrapped up at the PIP-II Injector Test Facility, or PIP2IT. The successful outcome paves the way for the construction of PIP-II, a new particle accelerator that will power record-breaking neutrino beams and drive a broad physics research program at Fermilab for the next 50 years.

Photo of a dome-shaped building, likely an observatory, atop a mountain, which gold mist surrounds. Blue sky and silhouette of birds above.

Homebound astrophysicists miss mountaintops

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, travel bans and stay-at-home orders meant astrophysicists collaborating on the Dark Energy Survey needed to find a new way to conduct their observations using the Dark Energy Camera.

Man in white shirt sitting at desk, signing documents

Fermilab and INFN sign 3 arrangements

Fermilab feature

Fermilab signed three international arrangements in June with the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, known as INFN. The three arrangements are related to Fermilab’s Short Baseline Neutrino Program, the PIP-II particle accelerator and the EuPRAXIA advanced accelerator project.

Two hockey players that resemble rock-em-sock-em robot toys shake hands on a rink. The one on the left is red and has a dome for a torso with the number 18 on the sleeve. On the right, the player is blue, with Fermilab's Wilson Hall as the torso and 87 on the sleeve. It holds a hockey stick.

The odd(eron) couple

Symmetry feature

Scientists discovered a new particle by comparing data recorded at the Large Hadron Collider and the Tevatron.

A large box-like structure sits on a round platform. Behind it, a banner that says "DUNE." To the right, a man with short hair wears glasses, a face mask, blue surgical gloves, a blue shirt and brown pants.

DUNE prototype detector ArgonCube crosses the globe

Fermilab feature

The first module of the prototype pixel-based neutrino catcher developed for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is on its way to Fermilab from the University of Bern.

An illustration of lots of yellow dots on a light pink background. Some have rainbows or smiley faces on them. One has lines coming out it that make it look star-like. One dot is shiny and red. In the center, there is a white dot. Some glare appears to emanate from the white dot.

What is a photon?

photons

Symmetry feature

Quanta of light called photons are the smallest possible packets of electromagnetic energy. Learn the history behind how scientists came to understand photons — and what these particles have shown us (and might show us) they can do.

A minute with Aleksandra Ćiprijanović, astrophysicist

Fermilab feature

Whether in Serbia or Chicago, Fermilab postdoctoral researcher Aleksandra Ćiprijanović is working to unlock the secrets of the night sky. As a member of the Deep Skies Lab, an international collaboration of physicists, she’s figuring out how to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to better handle the huge amounts of data needed for discovery science.

Three vertical planes of sense wires stand in the center of this 3D chart that shows on the left how particles flying through the detector create electrons that drift to the sense wires of the detector, and on the right shows electric signals – the waveforms – that these wires will collect as a function of time. To the left, an incoming neutrino travels through the liquid argon of the time projection chamber, and it eventually splits into two charged particles that knock loose electrons in the liquid. To the right of the sense wires, waveforms are shown for the Y plane and the V plane.

Physicists achieve significant improvement in spotting accelerator-produced neutrinos in a cosmic haystack

Press release

Ground-breaking image reconstruction and analysis algorithms developed for surface-based MicroBooNE detector filter out cosmic ray tracks to pinpoint elusive neutrino interactions with unprecedented clarity.

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