DUNE

Construction work at Fermilab near Kirk and Giese Roads

Fermilab representatives provided an update about the upcoming LBNF site preparation work to members of the Batavia City Council on Nov.6. Starting this month, crews will prepare an area on the Fermilab site close to Kirk and Giese roads for the construction of the new facility for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

Fermi Research Alliance awarded Prof. Yasar Onel, from the University of Iowa, a grant to design a helium gas regulation system for neutrinos at the Main Injector beam monitors at Fermilab. The grant also allows for work on a gas regulation design study, prototype and consultation on a gas regulator system for the DUNE NuMI beam monitors.

Catching ghost particles

Although neutrinos are the most common matter particle in the universe they are also known as ghost particles because they move through our bodies every second without ever interacting with us. Neutrinos won’t be scaring anyone on Halloween but they will be studied by scientists in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment led by Fermilab.

From Unicamp (upon opening the link, right click to translate to English): Last week, directors and scientists from Unicamp (the University of Campinas) and other research institutions visited Fermilab as part of the critical assessment by DOE on the progress of the international collaboration in building the large underground neutrino detector at LBNF. The University is responsible for the development and subsequent production of two sets of central equipment that will make up the laboratory to be installed in South Dakota 1,500 meters underground. One of the sets will be used to detect photons and the other to purify liquid argon.

Plans are moving ahead for the liquid nitrogen refrigeration system which will use liquid nitrogen to cool the 17,500 tons of liquid argon that will fill the neutrino detectors at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility in the Sanford Lab. The system is expected to be built by 2026, and operational underground by the end of 2026 to support the installation of some detector elements, and the operations of the full facility starting in early 2028.

From Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, July 25, 2023: PNNL scientists and a team of university and national laboratory collaborators recently published a paper detailing a new detector design that can be fine-tuned to increase sensitivity to physics beyond the original DUNE concept.