liquid argon

While studying at the University of Manchester, Green analyzed data from a liquid argon neutrino detector at Fermilab, developing new techniques to identify muons that would hint at new particles.

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.

The ICARUS detector, part of Fermilab’s Short-Baseline Neutrino Program, will officially start its hunt for elusive sterile neutrinos this fall. The international collaboration led by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia successfully brought the detector online and is now collecting test data and making final improvements.

Fermilab scientists are developing one of the most cold-tolerant robots ever made so they can monitor the interiors of particle detectors. The project has already garnered some interest from engineers at other research institutions, including NASA.

Fermilab contractors have successfully commissioned a system that will move 800,000 tons of rock to create space for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment’s detectors in South Dakota. Excavation crews will transport the rock from a mile underground to the surface using refurbished mining infrastructure and the newly constructed conveyor system.

DUNE’s near detector, located at Fermilab, will take vital measurements of neutrino beam energy and composition before it reaches the experiment’s far detector in South Dakota. Its unmatched precision measurements will offer its own opportunities for the discovery of new physics.

From Yale University, Jan. 22, 2021: For his new piece of music, “MicroBooNE,” David Ibbett, Fermilab’s first composer-in-residence, collaborated with physics professor Bonnie Fleming through a series of discussions about the science behind the experiment that inspired the composition. The neutrino-inspired piece premiered on Dec. 8, 2020, as part of the Fermilab Arts and Lectures Series.

From Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Jan. 26, 2021: The COHERENT particle physics experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has firmly established the existence of a new kind of neutrino interaction. To observe this interaction, scientists used CENNS-10, a liquid argon detector built at and on loan from Fermilab.

From Physics World, June 12, 2019: Physics World posts a video recorded inside the ProtoDUNE neutrino detector by the particle physicist and vocalist Anastasia Basharina-Freshville, who sing-explains why the noble gas is used to detect the elusive particles.

From Gasworld: Jan. 1, 2019: Trade publication Gasworld published a three-page cover story on DUNE, focusing on the experiment’s use of liquid argon. Print edition only.