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New results from NOvA experiment shed more light on neutrinos’ identity-changing behavior

The NOvA collaboration has released the result of its latest measurement of neutrino oscillations. The results provide greater insight into neutrino properties, specifically mass ordering and charge parity symmetry.

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

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.

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.

Exploring 7 billion light years of space with the Dark Energy Survey

Text on a purple background reads: Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Update

To tackle big questions about our universe, the Dark Energy Survey uses a powerful 570-megapixel camera to photograph galaxies close to home and billions of light years away. The analysis of the first three years of data resulted in the largest maps ever made showing the distribution and shapes of galaxies in our universe — and provided a fantastic test for scientist’s best predictions.

Dark Energy Survey releases most precise look at the universe’s evolution

A starry night sky with purple diagonal stripe from lower left to upper right corner above an observatory lit up in bright red. A shadow of a building or facility is in the lower right corner.

The Dark Energy Survey collaboration has created the largest ever maps of the distribution and shapes of galaxies, tracing both ordinary and dark matter in the universe out to a distance of over 7 billion light years. The analysis, which includes the first three years of data from the survey, is consistent with predictions from the current best model of the universe, the standard cosmological model. Nevertheless, there remain hints from DES and other experiments that matter in the current universe is a few percent less clumpy than predicted.

Modeling collisions between argon nuclei and neutrinos from a supernova

A simulated supernova neutrino interaction in the MicroBooNE detector, produced using MARLEY. This work lays a strong foundation for future supernova neutrino measurements with DUNE. Credit: MicroBooNE collaboration

A new computer program called MARLEY simulates supernova neutrino interactions in argon-based particle detectors.

Sensitive qubit-based technique to accelerate search for dark matter

The blue cylinder in this diagram represents a superconducting microwave cavity used to accumulate a dark matter signal. The purple is the qubit used to measure the state of the cavity, either 0 or 1. The value refers to the number of photons counted. If the dark matter has successfully deposited a photon in the cavity, the output would measure 1. No deposition of a photon would measure 0. Image: Akash Dixit, University of Chicago

Quantum bits acting as particle detectors offer a fast and highly reliable means of solving one of the great mysteries in physics: the nature of dark matter. This new method promises a more efficient way to detect dark matter candidates by improving the experimental signal-to-noise ratio.

First results from Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment strengthen evidence of new physics

Muon g-2 superconducting magnetic storage ring

The first results from the Muon g-2 experiment hosted at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory show fundamental particles called muons behaving in a way not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. These results confirm an earlier experiment of the same name performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Combined, the two results show strong evidence that our best theoretical model of the subatomic world is incomplete. One potential explanation would be the existence of undiscovered particles or forces.

First results from Muon g-2: Special seminar Wednesday, April 7, 10 a.m.

The long-awaited first results from the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab will be unveiled and discussed in a special seminar to be held Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 10 a.m. U.S. Central Time. The full agenda and connection information are available at the Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar web page. The Muon g-2 experiment searches for telltale signs of new particles and forces by examining the muon’s interaction with a surrounding magnetic field. By precisely determining the magnetic moment of the muon and comparing…

New computing algorithms expand the boundaries of a quantum future

New amplification algorithms expand the utility of quantum computers to handle non-Boolean scenarios, allowing for an extended range of values to characterize individual records, such as the scores assigned to each disk in the output superposition above. Illustration: Prasanth Shyamsundar

To fully realize the potential of quantum computing, scientists must start with the basics: developing step-by-step procedures, or algorithms, for quantum computers to perform simple tasks. A Fermilab scientist has done just that, announcing two new algorithms that build upon existing work in the field to further diversify the types of problems quantum computers can solve.

Searching for stealthy supersymmetry

These physicists comprise the LPC team that contributed to the supersymmetry analysis.

U.S. CMS physicists from Fermilab and associated universities collaborating under the umbrella of the LPC make up a team that is the first to perform a new kind of search for “stealthy” supersymmetry that does not result in an obvious signature of large energy imbalance. Instead, the LPC team is looking for collisions that result in an unusually large number of particles in the detector. CMS recently published a briefing explaining their analysis.