neutrino

For several weeks, a prototype detector for the Fermilab-hosted Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment collected data using beams from CERN’s particle accelerators. The results show a mature technology exceeding all expectations. It’s the culmination of three years of hard work by a global team dedicated to constructing and bringing the new detector online.

From the University of Rochester’s Campus Times, Jan. 23, 2019: A University of Rochester undergraduate working on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is interested in characterizing neutrinos because of the broad impact the particles may have on the very existence of matter.

From Nature, Jan. 23, 2019: Fermilab’s neutrino program is mentioned positively in this editorial about plans for the next circular collider in Europe.

From Live Science, Jan. 12, 2019: In the 1920s, careful and detailed observations of those decays found tiny, niggling discrepancies. The total energy at the start of certain decay processes was a tiny bit greater than the energy coming out. The math didn’t add up. Odd. So, a few physicists concocted a brand-new particle out of whole cloth: A little, neutral one. A neutrino.

For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that low-energy neutrinos can be thoroughly identified with a liquid-argon particle detector. The results, obtained with the ArgoNeuT experiment, are promising for experiments that use liquid argon to catch neutrinos, including the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

From Live Science, Dec. 25, 2018: Results from Fermilab’s MiniBooNE neutrino experiment makes Live Science’s top science stories of 2018, at number 4.

From Live Science, Jan. 1, 2019: One of the four is MiniBooNE’s search for a fourth neutrino, which could be a dark matter candidate.

From Syracuse University, Dec. 20, 2018: Collaborators at Syracuse University are contributing components for Fermilab’s Short-Baseline Near Detector, one of three particle detectors in the Short-Baseline Neutrino program.

Agencies in the United States and France have signed statements expressing interest to work together on the development and production of technical components for PIP-II, a major particle accelerator project with substantial international contributions. In addition, the French agencies also plan to collaborate on DUNE, an international flagship science project that will unlock the mysteries of neutrinos.

The upcoming Short-Baseline Near Detector at Fermilab continues scientists’ search for evidence of a hypothetical particle, the sterile neutrino. Collaborators around the world are participating in the detector’s construction. Its first critical components recently arrived from partner institutions. When complete, SBND will be the third and final detector in Fermilab’s Short-Baseline Neutrino Program.