Fermilab

theoretical physics

Neutrino oscillations at the wrong location?

Innovation News Network Feb. 9, 2024

Neutrino oscillations, discovered 25 years ago, break the Standard Model of particle physics and have been the subject of much investigation.To further study neutrino oscillation, Fermilab’s Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program has three detectors in the beam, placed at three very different distances to research if neutrinos are changing as a function of distance.

Fermilab launches the new Gates Fellowship

November 29, 2021 | edited by Lisa Roberts

Inspired by the achievements of Jim Gates, currently Ford Foundation professor and director of the Brown University Theoretical Physics Center, the new Fermilab Sylvester James Gates, Jr. Fellowship prioritizes the inclusion of first-generation college graduates, and the representation of historically and contemporarily minoritized individuals underrepresented in theoretical physics.

Which neutrino is the heaviest?

May 13, 2021 | Scott Hershberger

Three factoid cards, which look similar to playing cards or a baseball card, appear on a background of stars in a night sky (or in outer space) in a cartoon rendering. On each of the cards is a circle adjusted its sunglasses, presumably each a type of neutrino. Underneath these images on the cards are scribbles representing text and a question mark. In the upper left corner, the abbreviations for electron neutrino, a muon neutrino or a tau neutrino appear.

Figuring out which type of neutrino is heaviest, or solving the puzzle of neutrino mass hierarchy, would be a huge leap in our understanding of both neutrinos and the physics that govern our universe. The NoVA experiment or DUNE could help physicists do just that.