Neutrinos appear in revolutionary prototype

Neutrinos don’t like to let anyone look into the cosmic map, and a better understanding of the “ghost particles” promises completely new insights. Now a major step forward has been made. A new detector, the construction of which was considered impossible, has been proven. Dan Svoboda/Fermilab

Breakthrough: New detector captures neutrinos

As a scientist with a technological background, you can hardly imagine a greater challenge than developing a neutrino detector. Because of their ability to barely interact with matter, the “ghost particles” are notoriously difficult to capture, but understanding them better promises answers to big questions. A prototype has now proven itself and is set to revolutionize neutrino observation.

As scientists from the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) recently announced, the first neutrinos were detected using a new type of particle detector at the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). LArPix, the heart of the prototype, promises to be able to spatially map neutrino events with unprecedented precision.

“This is a truly significant milestone that shows the potential of this technology,” said Louise Suter, a scientist at Fermilab who coordinated the installation of the module, in Berkley Lab report on the breakthrough. “It is fantastic to see that the hard work that has gone into designing, building and installing the detector has been validated.”

At first unthinkable

The new detector achieves its spatial and temporal resolution through “liquid argon time projection chambers” in which particle tracks can be tracked. As Dan Dwyer, head of the neutrino physics group at Berkeley Lab and technical director of the project, explains, the requirements for the construction were long considered insurmountable. “It was thought to be impossible,” says Dwyer.

With the invention of “LArPix,” however, the team has “made this dream a reality.” The fact that the prototype of this construction has now been able to register the first neutrinos gives hope that DUNE will live up to the great expectations. The final detector will contain 35 of the liquid argon modules, each of which is larger than the test setup.