The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in the USA is intended to unravel the secrets of the neutrino elementary particles. They played an important role in the early phase of the universe, as the University of Bern announced in a communiqué on Wednesday.
For the experiment, a neutrino beam was sent from the Fermilab particle physics research center in Chicago to South Dakota, 1,300 kilometers to the west. By taking measurements at sources near and far, the researchers hope to find out how the particles change type on their journey, it said. This phenomenon is known as neutrino oscillation. The counterpart of neutrinos, antineutrinos, will also be investigated.
A detector like the one at the University of Bern can detect an intense stream of neutrinos and antineutrinos in 3D images. Something like this has never been built or tested before, it said. The successful neutrino detection now allows the detectors to be finalized and enlarged, said Michele Weber, director of the Laboratory for High Energy Physics (LHEP) and head of the Bern DUNE group.
After maintenance work, the neutrino beam at Fermilab is scheduled to be put back into operation in autumn 2024. The prototype will then record around 10,000 images per day for several months.