From CERN Courier, July 7, 2020: A new generation of accelerator and reactor experiments is opening an era of high-precision neutrino measurements to tackle questions such as leptonic CP violation, the mass hierarchy and the possibility of a fourth “sterile” neutrino. These include the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, and Fermilab’s NOvA and Short-Baseline Neutrino programs.
DUNE
From Physics, July 2, 2020: Fermilab scientist Marcela Carena is quoted in this overview of the European Strategy for Particle Physics Update. The update outlines a number of current and future priorities, including international neutrino experiments such as the forthcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, and the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. It also prioritizes a 100-kilometer circular collider.
The PIP-II project at Fermilab includes the construction of a 215-meter-long particle accelerator that will accelerate particles to 84% of the speed of light. Research institutions in France, India, Italy, Poland, the UK and the United States are building major components of the new machine. The new particle accelerator will enable Fermilab to generate an unprecedented stream of neutrinos — subtle, subatomic particles that could hold the key to understanding the universe’s evolution.
Construction workers have carried out the first underground blasting for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, which will provide the space, infrastructure and particle beam for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. This prep work paves the way for removing more than 800,000 tons of rock to make space for the gigantic DUNE detector a mile underground.
In this 5-minute video, Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia explains why mysterious particles called neutrinos could be the key to understanding the nature of the universe. He talks about the search for a fourth type of neutrino and why the universe would not exist without neutrinos. He describes how scientists aim to unveil the secrets of the neutrino with the ICARUS and DUNE neutrino experiments, hosted by Fermilab. He recalls why early in his career he chose liquid argon as his material of choice to collect information about neutrino interactions with matter.
The 29th International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics brings together thousands of researchers for the latest developments in the field.
From Physics Today, June 1, 2020: Somewhere in the laws of physics, particles must be allowed to behave differently from their antiparticles. If they weren’t, the universe would contain equal amounts of matter and antimatter, all the particles and antiparticles would promptly annihilate one another, and none of us would exist. Fermilab’s NOvA neutrino experiment and the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, are pinning down CP violation, the property that could explain the imbalance.
From Sanford Underground Research Facility, May 26, 2020: Unwilling to ignore flaws in the Standard Model, physicists are looking for a new, more perfect model of the subatomic universe. And many are hoping that the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, can put their theories to the test.
From Gizmodo, May 18, 2020: Neutrino physics is a trek into the unknown, one that the United States physics community has chosen to pursue full-on. A flagship experiment called LBNF/DUNE will lead the search, in pursuit of answers that may take decades or more to find. Fermilab Deputy Director for Research Joe Lykken, DUNE spokesperson Ed Blucher, and DUNE scientists Chang Kee Jung and Elizabeth Worcester talk about how neutrinos will enhance our understanding of the universe.
From Sanford Underground Research Facility, May 19, 2020: The international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, will be tuned to see neutrinos streaming from a nearby supernova. Such neutrino interactions could give researchers insight into one of the explosive processes that formed the elements in our solar system and our planet.