How particle detectors capture matter’s hidden, beautiful reality

From Science News Online, August 5, 2021: Science writer Emily Conover explores the fascinating world of neutrino detectors that make the invisible world of particles visible. Read more about how neutrino detectors have evolved with insights Fermilab’s Jennifer Raaf and Sam Zeller.

Two crew members stand with the drill underground.

Drilling for neutrinos

Fermilab feature

Construction crews will excavate around 800,000 tons of rock to make space for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. But first, teams must carve out a quarter-mile-high ventilation shaft.

Turn your eyes to the skies at Neutrino Day Star Chronicles

From Sanford Lab, July 2021: Explore all the Neutrino Day events July 9-10 to talk with scientists, participate in interactive activities, experience weird science demonstrations, take virtual tours of the underground, and visit the art gallery and library—all in real time! Use the free and simple platform, Gather.town, to virtually go to Neutrino Day town where you can enjoy the events and interact with others as you would in real life.

SURF invites public to largest virtual event of the year, Neutrino Day: Star Chronicles

From Sanford Lab, July 6, 2021: Celebrate Neutrino Day with SURF’s Star Chronicles on Friday, July 9, and Saturday, July 10. See the line-up of virtual events streaming through Gather.town, a free and simple platform, where attendees can explore the events and interact with others as they would in real life.

A large box-like structure sits on a round platform. Behind it, a banner that says "DUNE." To the right, a man with short hair wears glasses, a face mask, blue surgical gloves, a blue shirt and brown pants.

DUNE prototype detector ArgonCube crosses the globe

Fermilab feature

The first module of the prototype pixel-based neutrino catcher developed for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is on its way to Fermilab from the University of Bern.

SURF activities impact SD economy

From the Black Hills Pioneer, June 20, 2021: The former Homestake Gold Mine was the largest and deepest in the western hemisphere and today it is the largest science project attempted on U.S. soil. The LBNF/DUNE includes a collaboration of more than 1,300 scientists from 32 countries. Read more about the significant impacts LBNF/DUNE is having on South Dakota.

An illustration. I person stands inside a giant, hollow gold cube and sends a signal using a device to another device on the left side of the screen that is close up and held in a hand. The close-up device says "counting" and has some numbers. In the bottom right-hand corner, it says LBNF/DUNE.

The other particle detector

When studying mysterious subatomic particles, researchers at SURF in South Dakota use a different kind of particle detector, particle counters, to prevent run-of-the-mill dust particles from creating background noise and obscuring results.

Physicists achieve significant improvement in spotting neutrinos in a cosmic haystack

From Science Magazine (UK), June 9, 2021: Brookhaven scientists have developed new ways for the MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab to filter out cosmic ray tracks to pinpoint elusive neutrino interactions with unprecedented clarity.

Three vertical planes of sense wires stand in the center of this 3D chart that shows on the left how particles flying through the detector create electrons that drift to the sense wires of the detector, and on the right shows electric signals – the waveforms – that these wires will collect as a function of time. To the left, an incoming neutrino travels through the liquid argon of the time projection chamber, and it eventually splits into two charged particles that knock loose electrons in the liquid. To the right of the sense wires, waveforms are shown for the Y plane and the V plane.

Physicists achieve significant improvement in spotting accelerator-produced neutrinos in a cosmic haystack

Press release

Ground-breaking image reconstruction and analysis algorithms developed for surface-based MicroBooNE detector filter out cosmic ray tracks to pinpoint elusive neutrino interactions with unprecedented clarity.

Joint appointment at JGU and Fermilab: Alfons Weber is JGU’s new W3 Professor of Experimental Particle Physics

Press release

Alfons Weber has achieved full professorship teaching Experimental Particle Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His joint appointment at JGU and Fermilab represents the expansion of PRISMA+ neutrino physics research program.