Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, has taken a significant step to participate in the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab. Fermilab and the university have signed an agreement to jointly appoint an internationally renowned researcher who will strengthen the experimental particle physics research program at JGU Mainz and advance a German contribution to DUNE. This is the first Fermilab joint agreement with a university in Germany.

From Live Science, Aug. 19, 2019: The international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, is first in this list of important upcoming neutrino experiments. Both the Fermilab accelerator complex and the giant underground detector will enable scientists to study perhaps the most underrated particles known to humankind.

From SDPB Radio, July 26, 2019: Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer’s full interview for “Morning Fill-Up” is now available on the South Dakota Public Broadcasting site. In the 58-minute recording, Lockyer discusses neutrinos, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and Sanford Underground Research Facility and his own journey in science.

From Science, Aug. 8, 2019: Fermilab physicists are resurrecting a massive particle detector by lowering it into a tomblike pit and embalming it with a chilly fluid. In August, workers eased two gleaming silver tanks bigger than shipping containers, the two halves of the detector, into a concrete-lined hole. Hauled from Europe two years ago, ICARUS will soon start a second life seeking perhaps the strangest particles physicists have dreamed up, oddballs called sterile neutrinos.

Scientists are working on a pixelated detector capable of clearly and quickly capturing neutrino interactions — a crucial component for the near detector of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Using technological solutions developed at University of Bern and Berkeley Lab, a prototype detector called ArgonCube is under construction in Bern and will arrive at Fermilab next year.

From SDPB Radio’s “In the Moment: Innovation,” July 26, 2019: In this 18-minute radio piece, Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer discusses experimental particle physics, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and the partnership with the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility team is in the process of rehabilitating an old mining tunnel in South Dakota for the installation of a conveyor system to transport rock. In June, they reached a milestone when they finished the rebuilding of the portal to the tunnel.

From the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 9, 2019: The international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, will start running in 2026, studying an intense beam of neutrinos that starts at Fermilab and that will be measured in underground caverns in Lead, South Dakota. Fermilab scientists Deborah Harris and Sam Zeller talk about the mysteries of neutrinos and how DUNE will address them in this in depth article.

From Kelo, July 19, 2019: Fermilab’s Patrick Weber and others talk about the international, Fermilab-hosted Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and its Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility in this 8-minute video. Sanford Underground Research Facility is home to the DUNE far detector, and the world-leading research taking place at there is giving scientists from a variety of disciplines a wealth of information about the universe, the geology of the region and life underground.

From Kelo, July 10, 2019: Fermilab’s Bonnie Fleming talks about neutrinos, the international, Fermilab-hosted DUNE and and LBNF in this 9-minute video on the research taking place one mile underground in Lead, South Dakota, at the Sanford Underground Research Facility.