Scientists working on the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment are developing a vertical drift detector. The new technology may open doors to building large neutrino detectors at a lower cost and in a simpler manner.
DUNE
The international DUNE collaboration is conducting final tests of the components for its first neutrino detector module, to be installed a mile underground in South Dakota. Preparations for ramping up the mass production of these components are underway.
Representatives from science funding agencies from around the world will convene in Lead, South Dakota, the future home of the large particle detector for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.
From Bioengineer.org, March 21, 2023: Congratulations to Mary Bishai, distinguished scientist from Brookhaven National Laboratory, who has been elected co-spokesperson of the international project DUNE. Bishai began working on DUNE in 2012 and will lead DUNE’s 1,400-member international collaboration alongside Sergio Bertolucci, a physics professor at the University of Bologna.
Bishai and Bertolucci lead the 1,400-member collaboration of scientists and engineers of the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab.
To build the DUNE neutrino experiment and its associated accelerator upgrade, experts invent customized ways to transport fragile, expensive and highly specialized components.
From the State University of Campinas, Unicamp (Brazil), March 13, 2023: This week Lia Merminga visited the State University of Campinas in São Paulo to attend a workshop on the purification of liquid argon. The event celebrated the achievements of the first phase of the LBNF/DUNE project and previewed the work to be carried out and the technologies to be developed in the next stage. Merminga stated the efforts of undergraduate and graduate students and the contributions of the university are essential to the success of DUNE.
From BBC Sky at Night Magazine, March 13, 2023: BBC speaks with Dr. Elena Gramellini, a Lederman Fellow at Fermilab, whose field of research is experimental particle physics and neutrino detectors. Dr. Gramellini explains neutrinos, cosmic building blocks and what they can tell us about the early Universe.
From Laser Focus World, Jan. 12, 2023: What does the future of detectors look like and what problems will they solve? Advances in novel detectors are working on some of the most elusive mysteries in science—from quantum teleportation to neutrinos and dark matter. The long-baseline neutrino detectors of DUNE are part of this line up of international detectors.
A mile underground in South Dakota, construction crews have worked diligently to carve out an extensive network of caverns and tunnels that one day will house a huge neutrino experiment. Their efforts have paid off: With almost 400,000 tons of rock extracted from the earth, the excavation has reached the halfway point.