Short-Baseline Neutrino program

Scientists and engineers from around the world collaborate with Fermilab to develop state-of-the-art technologies and solve the mysteries of matter, energy, space and time. Here is a look at 10 ways they advanced science and technology this year.

An international group of scientists has finished the assembly of the large neutrino detection system for the Short-Baseline Near Detector at Fermilab.

Researchers from more than 50 countries collaborate with Fermilab to develop state-of-the-art technologies and solve the mysteries of matter, energy, space and time. Take a look at 10 ways Fermilab and its partners advanced science and technology in 2021.

This summer, a team of scientists, engineers and technicians finished installing one of the main components that will create the strong electric field within the Short-Baseline Near Detector. Now they are getting ready to assemble the rest of the detector.

Back when it was theorized, scientists weren’t sure they would ever detect the neutrino. Now scientists, including some at Fermilab, are searching for a version of the particle that could be even more elusive.

Fermilab’s Pedro Machado has won the 2021 Universities Research Association Early Career Award for his theoretical work on neutrino science that helps experimentalists with novel search strategies and scientific questions worth exploring.

From CERN Courier, July 7, 2020: A new generation of accelerator and reactor experiments is opening an era of high-precision neutrino measurements to tackle questions such as leptonic CP violation, the mass hierarchy and the possibility of a fourth “sterile” neutrino. These include the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, and Fermilab’s NOvA and Short-Baseline Neutrino programs.

From Scientific American, July 2020: Evidence for the existence of a sterile neutrino is compelling, but the idea that certain experiments might be detecting a fourth neutrino remains controversial. Projects around the world seek to settle the matter, including Fermilab’s Short-Baseline Neutrino program.

From the University of Bern, May 2020: The University of Bern and Fermilab partner on three neutrino projects aimed at a thorough study of some postulated properties of the ghostly particle: MicroBooNE, SBND and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the latter to be considered the world’s ultimate neutrino observatory.

Scientists have begun filling the ICARUS detector at Fermilab with liquid argon, moving one step closer toward neutrino oscillation measurements and the potential discovery of sterile neutrinos.