- Title: Why do we exist? CERN's neutrino detector looks for answers
- Date: 8th October 2018
- Summary: PRÉVESSIN-MOËNS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 18, 2018) (REUTERS) NESSI AND COLLEAGUE INSIDE SECOND NEUTRINO INSTALLATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARZIO NESSI, HEAD OF THE NEUTRINO PLATFORM AT CERN, SAYING: "Up to now we are in an embarrassing situation because we have found things in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) but we have not opened a new window of new physics. But we know that this new window of physics must be there, new physics must be there - what we describe up to now, what we call 'the standard model' cannot explain many things that we know exist; dark matter, for example. So, this is the first opportunity to go in a reasonable way beyond the standard model and show something completely new. And this will open opportunities that you cannot even predict now because they will come as we develop. And, of course, in all these discoveries there are always surprises which might make us go even faster in changing or thinking a different way."
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2018 11:42
- Keywords: CERN Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment ProtoDUNE Marzio Nessi neutrinos Large Hadron Collider Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory physics
- Location: PRÉVESSIN-MOËNS, FRANCE
- City: PRÉVESSIN-MOËNS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA003917HT23
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Neutrinos are among the most abundant matter particles in the universe, but they're also the most mysterious. These invisible sub-atomic particles pervade the universe but pass through matter with only the tiniest interaction.
A new installation at Europe's science research centre CERN is 'catching' neutrino traces in a first step towards answering some of the biggest questions in theoretical physics; including, essentially, why do we exist at all?
"In these parameters that we are going to define, there is very important information which tells us something very fundamental about nature. For example, it will tell us why we are here and why we are made of matter and we are not made of anti-matter," said Marzio Nessi, Head of the Neutrino Platform at CERN.
He added: "Just to give you an impression; over one centimetre of your skin, there are probably thousands of billions of neutrinos going through every second. They interact very weakly with the environment. For example, among 1 billion neutrino which arrive from the sun and goes through the Earth; just one interacts with the mass of the Earth."
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) recently announced that a prototype version, called ProtoDUNE, is now operational at CERN's site in Prévessin-Moëns in France, within the ring formed by the 27km the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
The installation consists of two separate detectors, each about the size of a two-storey house. The first took two years to build and eight weeks to fill with 800 tons of liquid argon, which needs to be kept at temperatures below -184 degrees Celsius (-300 degrees Fahrenheit). It recently recorded its first neutrino particle tracks in the argon, coming from both cosmic rays and a beam created at CERN's accelerator complex. Neutrinos enter the detector and smash into the argon nuclei, producing charged particles that leave ionization traces in the liquid. These can then be seen by the scientists using a tracking system to create three-dimensional models, explained Nessi
"We begin to see tracks of, for example, cosmic particles and heavy electrons which come down, traverse and pass through some material and then they pass through this detector and they leave there some trace that we can detect."
Nessi added that the new installation hopes to answer fundamental questions about neutrinos and, in the process, challenge much of what we thought we knew about physics.
"We know that this new window of physics must be there, new physics must be there," he said.
"What we call 'the standard model' cannot explain many things that we know exist; dark matter, for example. So, this is the first opportunity to go in a reasonable way beyond the standard model and show something completely new."
However, ProtoDUNE, as its name suggests, is just the prototype to prove the technology works and iron out any complications. Bigger discoveries will come in a number of years when the full-sized installations are built in the United States. The first DUNE detector will be over 20 times bigger and built a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the new module is scheduled to become operational in 2026.
"This will open opportunities that you cannot even predict now because they will come as we develop. And, of course, in all these discoveries there are always surprises which might make us go even faster in changing or thinking a different way," said Nessi. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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