One of DUNE’s caves. (Image credit: Matthew Kapust, Sanford Underground Research Facility).
Excavators have completed excavating three huge underground caverns, covering an area the size of three football fields, to install particle detectors for Fermilab’s Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Neutrinos are electrically neutral, almost massless particles. These are the lightest particles in the universe and easily pass through matter like ghosts. The sun produces trillions of neutrinos that pass harmlessly through the human body without us even noticing. Neutrinos are notoriously difficult to study, and his discovery came 26 years after they were first theoretically predicted. Ongoing scientific efforts are directed toward determining the masses of neutrinos, determining whether they are antiparticles of themselves, and understanding how neutrinos interact with matter. It is being said.
Specifically, DUNE was set up to investigate a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation, in which different types of neutrinos contain different masses. Scientists will study neutrinos produced by the unnatural deaths of distant stars, as well as neutrinos produced by Fermilab itself, 1,300 kilometers from the detector. The beam of neutrinos is expected to pass straight through the Earth’s crust, without the need for tunneling. Approximately 800,000 tons of rock were excavated and transported above ground to former mining areas.
The research team plans to begin installing an insulated steel structure to house the first of four particle detectors later this year. The team hopes to have the first detector up and running by 2028. Excavation Manager Michael Gemelli said: “The success of this phase of the project is due to the safe and dedicated work of our multi-disciplinary excavation crew.” Project engineer and support personnel background. What a great achievement and milestone for this international project. ” Like most particle physics experiments, DUNE is a massive collaboration by his 1,400 scientists from 200 institutions in 36 countries.
