ProtoDUNE

Excavation of massive caverns for Fermilab’s DUNE detector completed

Physicists from the University of Texas at Arlington will build portions of the first two far detectors to be installed at the South Dakota site fro DUNE. Having been part of the collaboration since its earliest stages, UTA physicists also assisted in the construction of prototype detectors at CERN.

From CERN, June 13, 2023: Teams at CERN’s Neutrino Platform are currently upgrading and assembling multiple detectors to help large experiments like the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment to uncover the mysteries of neutrinos. But before the full-size detectors are built, CERN has created the large cryostat modules of the ProtoDUNE experiment. The Neutrino Platform is also an assembly station for the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment in Japan.

From Gizmodo, May 18, 2020: Neutrino physics is a trek into the unknown, one that the United States physics community has chosen to pursue full-on. A flagship experiment called LBNF/DUNE will lead the search, in pursuit of answers that may take decades or more to find. Fermilab Deputy Director for Research Joe Lykken, DUNE spokesperson Ed Blucher, and DUNE scientists Chang Kee Jung and Elizabeth Worcester talk about how neutrinos will enhance our understanding of the universe.

Advances in subatomic physics heavily depend on ingenuity and technology. And when it comes to discovering the nature of some of the most elusive particles in the universe, neutrinos, scientists need the best and most sensitive detector technology possible. Scientists working at CERN have started tests of a new neutrino detector prototype, using a very promising technology called “dual phase.”