#neutrino detector

[sspacegodd]

3D printed neutrino detector Super FGD

[ultrimio]

Conceptual Design for a Neutrino Power Transmission System

Overview

Neutrinos could potentially be used to send electricity over long distances without the need for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines. Neutrinos have the unique property of being able to pass through matter without interacting with it, which makes them ideal for transmitting energy over long distances without significant energy loss. This property allows neutrinos to be used as a medium for energy transmission, potentially replacing HVDC lines in certain applications.

So the goal is to create a neutrino-based power transmission system capable of sending and receiving a beam of neutrinos that carry a few MW of power across a short distance. This setup will include a neutrino beam generator (transmitter), a travel medium, and a neutrino detector (receiver) that can convert the neutrinos' kinetic energy into electrical power.

1. Neutrino Beam Generator (Transmitter)

Particle Accelerator: At the heart of the neutrino beam generator will be a particle accelerator. This accelerator will increase the energy of protons before colliding them with a target to produce pions and kaons, which then decay into neutrinos. A compact linear accelerator or a small synchrotron could be used for this purpose.

Target Material: The protons accelerated by the particle accelerator will strike a dense material target (like tungsten or graphite) to create a shower of pions and kaons.

Decay Tunnel: After production, these particles will travel through a decay tunnel where they decay into neutrinos. This tunnel needs to be under vacuum or filled with inert gas to minimize interactions before decay.

Focusing Horns: Magnetic horns will be used to focus the charged pions and kaons before they decay, enhancing the neutrino beam's intensity and directionality.

Energy and Beam Intensity: To achieve a few MW of power, the system will need to operate at several gigaelectronvolts (GeV) with a proton beam current of a few tens of milliamperes.

2. Travel Medium

Direct Line of Sight: Neutrinos can travel through the Earth with negligible absorption or scattering, but for initial tests, a direct line of sight through air or vacuum could be used to simplify detection.

Distance: The initial setup could span a distance from a few hundred meters to a few kilometers, allowing for measurable neutrino interactions without requiring excessively large infrastructure.

3. Neutrino Detector (Receiver)

Detector Medium: A large volume of water or liquid scintillator will be used as the detecting medium. Neutrinos interacting with the medium produce a charged particle that can then be detected via Cherenkov radiation or scintillation light.

Photodetectors: Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) or Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) will be arranged around the detector medium to capture the light signals generated by neutrino interactions.

Energy Conversion: The kinetic energy of particles produced in neutrino interactions will be converted into heat. This heat can then be used in a traditional heat-to-electricity conversion system (like a steam turbine or thermoelectric generators).

Shielding and Background Reduction: To improve the signal-to-noise ratio, the detector will be shielded with lead or water to reduce background radiation. A veto system may also be employed to distinguish neutrino events from other particle interactions.

4. Control and Data Acquisition

Synchronization: Precise timing and synchronization between the accelerator and the detector will be crucial to identify and correlate neutrino events.

Data Acquisition System: A high-speed data acquisition system will collect data from the photodetectors, processing and recording the timing and energy of detected events.

Hypothetical Power Calculation

To estimate the power that could be transmitted:

Neutrino Flux: Let the number of neutrinos per second be ( N_\nu ), and each neutrino carries an average energy ( E_\nu ).

Neutrino Interaction Rate: Only a tiny fraction (( \sigma )) of neutrinos will interact with the detector material. For a detector with ( N_d ) target nuclei, the interaction rate ( R ) is ( R = N_\nu \sigma N_d ).

Power Conversion: If each interaction deposits energy ( E_d ) into the detector, the power ( P ) is ( P = R \times E_d ).

For a beam of ( 10^{15} ) neutrinos per second (a feasible rate for a small accelerator) each with ( E_\nu = 1 ) GeV, and assuming an interaction cross-section ( \sigma \approx 10^{-38} ) cm(^2), a detector with ( N_d = 10^{30} ) (corresponding to about 10 kilotons of water), and ( E_d = E_\nu ) (for simplicity in this hypothetical scenario), the power is:

[ P = 10

^{15} \times 10^{-38} \times 10^{30} \times 1 \text{ GeV} ]

[ P = 10^{7} \times 1 \text{ GeV} ]

Converting GeV to joules (1 GeV ≈ (1.6 \times 10^{-10}) J):

[ P = 10^{7} \times 1.6 \times 10^{-10} \text{ J/s} ]

[ P = 1.6 \text{ MW} ]

Thus, under these very optimistic and idealized conditions, the setup could theoretically transmit about 1.6 MW of power. However, this is an idealized maximum, and actual performance would likely be significantly lower due to various inefficiencies and losses.

Detailed Steps to Implement the Conceptual Design

Step 1: Building the Neutrino Beam Generator

Accelerator Design:

Choose a compact linear accelerator or a small synchrotron capable of accelerating protons to the required energy (several GeV).

Design the beamline with the necessary magnetic optics to focus and direct the proton beam.

Target Station:

Construct a target station with a high-density tungsten or graphite target to maximize pion and kaon production.

Implement a cooling system to manage the heat generated by the high-intensity proton beam.

Decay Tunnel:

Design and construct a decay tunnel, optimizing its length to maximize the decay of pions and kaons into neutrinos.

Include magnetic focusing horns to shape and direct the emerging neutrino beam.

Safety and Controls:

Develop a control system to synchronize the operation of the accelerator and monitor the beam's properties.

Implement safety systems to manage radiation and operational risks.

Step 2: Setting Up the Neutrino Detector

Detector Medium:

Select a large volume of water or liquid scintillator. For a few MW of transmitted power, consider a detector size of around 10 kilotons, similar to large neutrino detectors in current experiments.

Place the detector underground or in a well-shielded facility to reduce cosmic ray backgrounds.

Photodetectors:

Install thousands of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) or Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) around the detector to capture light from neutrino interactions.

Optimize the arrangement of these sensors to maximize coverage and detection efficiency.

Energy Conversion System:

Design a system to convert the kinetic energy from particle reactions into heat.

Couple this heat to a heat exchanger and use it to drive a turbine or other electricity-generating device.

Data Acquisition and Processing:

Implement a high-speed data acquisition system to record signals from the photodetectors.

Develop software to analyze the timing and energy of events, distinguishing neutrino interactions from background noise.

Step 3: Integration and Testing

Integration:

Carefully align the neutrino beam generator with the detector over the chosen distance.

Test the proton beam operation, target interaction, and neutrino production phases individually before full operation.

Calibration:

Use calibration sources and possibly a low-intensity neutrino source to calibrate the detector.

Adjust the photodetector and data acquisition settings to optimize signal detection and reduce noise.

Full System Test:

Begin with low-intensity beams to ensure the system's stability and operational safety.

Gradually increase the beam intensity, monitoring the detector's response and the power output.

Operational Refinement:

Refine the beam focusing and detector sensitivity based on initial tests.

Implement iterative improvements to increase the system's efficiency and power output.

Challenges and Feasibility

While the theoretical framework suggests that a few MW of power could be transmitted via neutrinos, several significant challenges would need to be addressed to make such a system feasible:

Interaction Rates: The extremely low interaction rate of neutrinos means that even with a high-intensity beam and a large detector, only a tiny fraction of the neutrinos will be detected and contribute to power generation.

Technological Limits: The current state of particle accelerator and neutrino detection technology would make it difficult to achieve the necessary beam intensity and detection efficiency required for MW-level power transmission.

Cost and Infrastructure: The cost of building and operating such a system would be enormous, likely many orders of magnitude greater than existing power transmission systems.

Efficiency: Converting the kinetic energy of particles produced in neutrino interactions to electrical energy with high efficiency is a significant technical challenge.

Scalability: Scaling this setup to practical applications would require even more significant advancements in technology and reductions

in cost.

Detailed Analysis of Efficiency and Cost

Even in an ideal scenario where technological barriers are overcome, the efficiency of converting neutrino interactions into usable power is a critical factor. Here’s a deeper look into the efficiency and cost aspects:

Efficiency Analysis

Neutrino Detection Efficiency: Current neutrino detectors have very low efficiency due to the small cross-section of neutrino interactions. To improve this, advanced materials or innovative detection techniques would be required. For instance, using superfluid helium or advanced photodetectors could potentially increase interaction rates and energy conversion efficiency.

Energy Conversion Efficiency: The process of converting the kinetic energy from particle reactions into usable electrical energy currently has many stages of loss. Thermal systems, like steam turbines, typically have efficiencies of 30-40%. To enhance this, direct energy conversion methods, such as thermoelectric generators or direct kinetic-to-electric conversion, need development but are still far from achieving high efficiency at the scale required.

Overall System Efficiency: Combining the neutrino interaction efficiency and the energy conversion efficiency, the overall system efficiency could be extremely low. For neutrino power transmission to be comparable to current technologies, these efficiencies need to be boosted by several orders of magnitude.

Cost Considerations

Capital Costs: The initial costs include building the particle accelerator, target station, decay tunnel, focusing system, and the neutrino detector. Each of these components is expensive, with costs potentially running into billions of dollars for a setup that could aim to transmit a few MW of power.

Operational Costs: The operational costs include the energy to run the accelerator and the maintenance of the entire system. Given the high-energy particles involved and the precision technology required, these costs would be significantly higher than those for traditional power transmission methods.

Cost-Effectiveness: To determine the cost-effectiveness, compare the total cost per unit of power transmitted with that of HVDC systems. Currently, HVDC transmission costs are about $1-2 million per mile for the infrastructure, plus additional costs for power losses over distance. In contrast, a neutrino-based system would have negligible losses over distance, but the infrastructure costs would dwarf any current system.

Potential Improvements and Research Directions

To move from a theoretical concept to a more practical proposition, several areas of research and development could be pursued:

Advanced Materials: Research into new materials with higher sensitivity to neutrino interactions could improve detection rates. Nanomaterials or quantum dots might offer new pathways to detect and harness the energy from neutrino interactions more efficiently.

Accelerator Technology: Developing more compact and efficient accelerators would reduce the initial and operational costs of generating high-intensity neutrino beams. Using new acceleration techniques, such as plasma wakefield acceleration, could significantly decrease the size and cost of accelerators.

Detector Technology: Improvements in photodetector efficiency and the development of new scintillating materials could enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in neutrino detectors. High-temperature superconductors could also be used to improve the efficiency of magnetic horns and focusing devices.

Energy Conversion Methods: Exploring direct conversion methods, where the kinetic energy of particles from neutrino interactions is directly converted into electricity, could bypass the inefficiencies of thermal conversion systems. Research into piezoelectric materials or other direct conversion technologies could be key.

Conceptual Experiment to Demonstrate Viability

To demonstrate the viability of neutrino power transmission, even at a very small scale, a conceptual experiment could be set up as follows:

Experimental Setup

Small-Scale Accelerator: Use a small-scale proton accelerator to generate a neutrino beam. For experimental purposes, this could be a linear accelerator used in many research labs, capable of accelerating protons to a few hundred MeV.

Miniature Target and Decay Tunnel: Design a compact target and a short decay tunnel to produce and focus neutrinos. This setup will test the beam production and initial focusing systems.

Small Detector: Construct a small-scale neutrino detector, possibly using a few tons of liquid scintillator or water, equipped with sensitive photodetectors. This detector will test the feasibility of detecting focused neutrino beams at short distances.

Measurement and Analysis: Measure the rate of neutrino interactions and the energy deposited in the detector. Compare this to the expected values based on the beam properties and detector design.

Steps to Conduct the Experiment

Calibrate the Accelerator and Beamline: Ensure the proton beam is correctly tuned and the target is accurately positioned to maximize pion and kaon production.

Operate the Decay Tunnel and Focusing System: Run tests to optimize the magnetic focusing horns and maximize the neutrino beam coherence.

Run the Detector: Collect data from the neutrino interactions, focusing on capturing the rare events and distinguishing them from background noise.

Data Analysis: Analyze the collected data to determine the neutrino flux and interaction rate, and compare these to

theoretical predictions to validate the setup.

Optimization: Based on initial results, adjust the beam energy, focusing systems, and detector configurations to improve interaction rates and signal clarity.

Example Calculation for a Proof-of-Concept Experiment

To put the above experimental setup into a more quantitative framework, here's a simplified example calculation:

Assumptions and Parameters

Proton Beam Energy: 500 MeV (which is within the capability of many smaller particle accelerators).

Number of Protons per Second ((N_p)): (1 \times 10^{13}) protons/second (a relatively low intensity to ensure safe operations for a proof-of-concept).

Target Efficiency: Assume 20% of the protons produce pions or kaons that decay into neutrinos.

Neutrino Energy ((E_\nu)): Approximately 30% of the pion or kaon energy, so around 150 MeV per neutrino.

Distance to Detector ((D)): 100 meters (to stay within a compact experimental facility).

Detector Mass: 10 tons of water (equivalent to (10^4) kg, or about (6 \times 10^{31}) protons assuming 2 protons per water molecule).

Neutrino Interaction Cross-Section ((\sigma)): Approximately (10^{-38} , \text{m}^2) (typical for neutrinos at this energy).

Neutrino Detection Efficiency: Assume 50% due to detector design and quantum efficiency of photodetectors.

Neutrino Production

Pions/Kaons Produced: [ N_{\text{pions/kaons}} = N_p \times 0.2 = 2 \times 10^{12} \text{ per second} ]

Neutrinos Produced: [ N_\nu = N_{\text{pions/kaons}} = 2 \times 10^{12} \text{ neutrinos per second} ]

Neutrino Flux at the Detector

Given the neutrinos spread out over a sphere: [ \text{Flux} = \frac{N_\nu}{4 \pi D^2} = \frac{2 \times 10^{12}}{4 \pi (100)^2} , \text{neutrinos/m}^2/\text{s} ] [ \text{Flux} \approx 1.6 \times 10^7 , \text{neutrinos/m}^2/\text{s} ]

Expected Interaction Rate in the Detector

Number of Target Nuclei ((N_t)) in the detector: [ N_t = 6 \times 10^{31} ]

Interactions per Second: [ R = \text{Flux} \times N_t \times \sigma \times \text{Efficiency} ] [ R = 1.6 \times 10^7 \times 6 \times 10^{31} \times 10^{-38} \times 0.5 ] [ R \approx 48 , \text{interactions/second} ]

Energy Deposited

Energy per Interaction: Assuming each neutrino interaction deposits roughly its full energy (150 MeV, or (150 \times 1.6 \times 10^{-13}) J): [ E_d = 150 \times 1.6 \times 10^{-13} , \text{J} = 2.4 \times 10^{-11} , \text{J} ]

Total Power: [ P = R \times E_d ] [ P = 48 \times 2.4 \times 10^{-11} , \text{J/s} ] [ P \approx 1.15 \times 10^{-9} , \text{W} ]

So, the power deposited in the detector from neutrino interactions would be about (1.15 \times 10^{-9}) watts.

Challenges and Improvements for Scaling Up

While the proof-of-concept might demonstrate the fundamental principles, scaling this up to transmit even a single watt of power, let alone megawatts, highlights the significant challenges:

Increased Beam Intensity: To increase the power output, the intensity of the proton beam and the efficiency of pion/kaon production must be dramatically increased. For high power levels, this would require a much higher energy and intensity accelerator, larger and more efficient targets, and more sophisticated focusing systems.

Larger Detector: The detector would need to be massively scaled

up in size. To detect enough neutrinos to convert to a practical amount of power, we're talking about scaling from a 10-ton detector to potentially tens of thousands of tons or more, similar to the scale of detectors used in major neutrino experiments like Super-Kamiokande in Japan.

Improved Detection and Conversion Efficiency: To realistically convert the interactions into usable power, the efficiency of both the detection and the subsequent energy conversion process needs to be near-perfect, which is far beyond current capabilities.

Steps to Scale Up the Experiment

To transition from the initial proof-of-concept to a more substantial demonstration and eventually to a practical application, several steps and advancements are necessary:

Enhanced Accelerator Performance:

Upgrade to Higher Energies: Move from a 500 MeV system to several GeV or even higher, as higher energy neutrinos can penetrate further and have a higher probability of interaction.

Increase Beam Current: Amplify the proton beam current to increase the number of neutrinos generated, aiming for a beam power in the range of hundreds of megawatts to gigawatts.

Optimized Target and Decay Tunnel:

Target Material and Design: Use advanced materials that can withstand the intense bombardment of protons and optimize the geometry for maximum pion and kaon production.

Magnetic Focusing: Refine the magnetic horns and other focusing devices to maximize the collimation and directionality of the produced neutrinos, minimizing spread and loss.

Massive Scale Detector:

Detector Volume: Scale the detector up to the kiloton or even megaton range, using water, liquid scintillator, or other materials that provide a large number of target nuclei.

Advanced Photodetectors: Deploy tens of thousands of high-efficiency photodetectors to capture as much of the light from interactions as possible.

High-Efficiency Energy Conversion:

Direct Conversion Technologies: Research and develop technologies that can convert the kinetic energy from particle reactions directly into electrical energy with minimal loss.

Thermodynamic Cycles: If using heat conversion, optimize the thermodynamic cycle (such as using supercritical CO2 turbines) to maximize the efficiency of converting heat into electricity.

Integration and Synchronization:

Data Acquisition and Processing: Handle the vast amounts of data from the detector with real-time processing to identify and quantify neutrino events.

Synchronization: Ensure precise timing between the neutrino production at the accelerator and the detection events to accurately attribute interactions to the beam.

Realistic Projections and Innovations Required

Considering the stark difference between the power levels in the initial experiment and the target power levels, let's outline the innovations and breakthroughs needed:

Neutrino Production and Beam Focus: To transmit appreciable power via neutrinos, the beam must be incredibly intense and well-focused. Innovations might include using plasma wakefield acceleration for more compact accelerators or novel superconducting materials for more efficient and powerful magnetic focusing.

Cross-Section Enhancement: While we can't change the fundamental cross-section of neutrino interactions, we can increase the effective cross-section by using quantum resonance effects or other advanced physics concepts currently in theoretical stages.

Breakthrough in Detection: Moving beyond conventional photodetection, using quantum coherent technologies or metamaterials could enhance the interaction rate detectable by the system.

Scalable and Safe Operation: As the system scales, ensuring safety and managing the high-energy particles and radiation produced will require advanced shielding and remote handling technologies.

Example of a Scaled Concept

To visualize what a scaled-up neutrino power transmission system might look like, consider the following:

Accelerator: A 10 GeV proton accelerator, with a beam power of 1 GW, producing a focused neutrino beam through a 1 km decay tunnel.

Neutrino Beam: A beam with a diameter of around 10 meters at production, focused down to a few meters at the detector site several kilometers away.

Detector: A 100 kiloton water Cherenkov or liquid scintillator detector, buried deep underground to minimize cosmic ray backgrounds, equipped with around 100,000 high-efficiency photodetectors.

Power Output: Assuming we could improve the overall system efficiency to even 0.1% (a huge leap from current capabilities), the output power could be: [ P_{\text{output}} = 1\text{ GW} \times 0.001 = 1\text{ MW} ]

This setup, while still futuristic, illustrates the scale and type of development needed to make neutrino power transmission a feasible alternative to current technologies.

Conclusion

While the concept of using neutrinos to transmit power is fascinating and could overcome many limitations of current power transmission infrastructure, the path from theory to practical application is long and filled with significant hurdels.

[ferroussulfayt]

[thesoulofthebeautiful]

(the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector)

labs that are also churches. to me

(1. annie dillard, teaching a stone to talk 2. the deep underground neutrino experiment, a.k.a. DUNE 3. the large hadron collider 4. the sudbury neutrino observatory)

[jcmarchi]

Giant particle detectors for neutrino project - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/giant-particle-detectors-for-neutrino-project-technology-org/

Giant particle detectors for neutrino project - Technology Org

With excavation work complete at the site where four gigantic particle detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be installed, scientists are preparing to begin construction on first detector. Part of that work occurs at The University of Texas at Arlington.

Jaehoon Yu, UTA professor of physics, stands on an elevated platform inside the DUNE field cage prototype

Located a mile below the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory in Lead, South Dakota, the three colossal caverns serve as the core of a new research facility that spans an underground area about the size of eight soccer fields.

Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), DUNE scientists will study the behavior of mysterious particles known as neutrinos to solve some of the biggest questions about the universe. These include why the universe is composed of matter, how an exploding star creates a black hole and if neutrinos are connected to dark matter or other undiscovered particles.

Jaehoon Yu, professor of physics, and Jonathan Asaadi, associate professor of physics, are leading UTA’s involvement with the project.

“The actual excavation took only a year, which is amazing,” Yu said. “It’s great that the excavation work is finished, and preparations can now be made for the installation of the detectors. This is an exciting time.”

The caverns provide space for four large neutrino detectors—each one about the size of a seven-story building. The detectors will be filled with liquid argon and record the rare interaction of neutrinos with the transparent liquid.

With DUNE, scientists will look for neutrinos from exploding stars and examine the behavior of a beam of neutrinos produced at Fermilab, located near Chicago, about 800 miles east of the underground caverns. The beam, produced by the world’s most intense neutrino source, will travel straight through earth and rock from Fermilab to the DUNE detectors in South Dakota. No tunnel is necessary for its path.

UTA’s Department of Physics has been involved with the DUNE project since its earliest stages. In January 2016, Yu organized a four-day international planning conference at UTA.

UTA physicists will now build portions of the first two detectors to be installed at the South Dakota site. Specifically, they will construct modules of the field cage—100 modules for the first detector and all 200 of the modules for the second detector. The work will take place in the Chemistry and Physics Building.

“We’re going to need to recruit a lot of students to help with this work,” Yu said. “We need to bring them in as freshmen and sophomores so we can train them, and they can be with the project as long as possible, including for the installation.”

Yu will lead UTA’s efforts for construction of parts for the “far” detector in South Dakota. Asaadi is working on portions of the “near” detector at Fermilab.

The DUNE collaboration includes more than 1,400 scientists and engineers from over 200 institutions in 36 countries.

Source: University of Texas at Arlington

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

[pair-of-ragged-quarks]

EXCELLENT NEWS: the next part of my research is looking at the thermal conductivity of spherical sapphire fasteners in our neutrino detector…

which means my Official Job Description is now

~Pondering the Orbs🔮~

[remnantglow]

neutrino detectors are kind of like churches. to me

[jettpack]

This is maybe the piece I’m most proud of from my time on Across the Spiderverse. This is the original design for what became collider in Mumbattan. Before story changes Spot was looking for a “dark matter containment unit” . I pulled from some traditional Indian architecture, the temple at auroville and the giant Japanese Neutrino detector. Working though this was very challenging but rewarding. 2 and a half years later and I’m still proud of this one. And lol yes it does have Glados vibes which I realized after I made it 😂. I’ve also included some exploratory sketches and center piece designs

[reginasbread]

This is Professor Agnieszka Zalewska.

She specialises in particle physics. She received her doctorate in 1975 from the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland, for work carried out on bubble chamber data from an experiment at CERN. Later, she worked on the DELPHI experiment at CERN's Large Electron Positron collider, LEP, where she played an important role in the development of silicon tracking detectors. Since 2000, she has been involved with neutrino physics through the ICARUS experiment at Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory, which studies a neutrino beam sent through the Earth from CERN, and has also been involved with feasibility studies for an underground laboratory in Poland.

She was the first woman to be elected President of CERN Council (2012). She was also the first scientist from Central and Eastern Europe.

Also, let's not forget that today, CERN is led by a woman. Professor Fabiola Gianotti became the first woman elected Director General of CERN (2016). She was renewed for the second term of office in 2021.

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT IS DARK MATTER, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER IN UNDERSTANDING THE UNIVERSE??

Blog#452

Saturday, November 9th, 2024.

Welcome back,

Dark matter constitutes over 80% of all matter in the universe, yet it remains unseen by scientists.

Its existence is inferred because, without it, the behavior of stars, planets, and galaxies would be inexplicable.

Here is what we know about it — or rather, what we think we know.

Dark matter is entirely invisible, emitting no light or energy, making it undetectable by conventional sensors and detectors. Scientists believe that the key to its elusive nature lies in its composition.

Visible matter, also called baryonic matter, consists of baryons — an overarching name for subatomic particles such as protons, neutrons and electrons. Scientists only speculate what dark matter is made of. It could be composed of baryons but it could also be non-baryonic, which means consisting of different types of particles.

Most scientists think that dark matter consists of non-baryonic matter. The leading candidates are WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles), which are thought to be ten to a hundred times the mass of a proton. However, their weak interactions with "normal" matter make them challenging to detect. Among these, neutralinos — hypothetical particles that are heavier and slower than neutrinos — are the top candidates, though they have not yet been observed.

Sterile neutrinos are another candidate. Neutrinos are particles that don't make up regular matter. A river of neutrinos streams from the sun, but because they rarely interact with normal matter, they pass through Earth and its inhabitants.

There are three known types of neutrinos; a fourth, the sterile neutrino, is proposed as a dark matter candidate. The sterile neutrino would only interact with regular matter through gravity.

"One of the outstanding questions is whether there is a pattern to the fractions that go into each neutrino species," Tyce DeYoung, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University and a collaborator on the IceCube neutrino observatory in Antarctica, told Space.com.

The smaller neutral axion and the uncharged photinos — both theoretical particles — are also potential placeholders for dark matter.

There is also such a thing as antimatter, which is not the same as dark matter. Antimatter consists of particles that are essentially the same as visible matter particles but with opposite electrical charges. These particles are called antiprotons and positrons (or antielectrons). When antiparticles meet particles, an explosion ensues that leads to the two types of matter canceling each other out. Because we live in a universe made of matter, it is obvious that there is not that much antimatter around, otherwise, there would be nothing left. Unlike dark matter, physicists can actually manufacture anti-matter in their laboratories.

Originally published on https://www.space.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, November 13th, 2024)

"WHEN WILL WE BECOME A TYPE 1 CIVILIZATION ??"

[sspacegodd]

Free-range organic neutrino detector.

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists in China are building the world's largest "ghost particle" detector 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) beneath the surface of the ocean.  The Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope (TRIDENT) — called Hai ling or "Ocean Bell" in Chinese — will be anchored to the seabed of the Western Pacific Ocean. Upon completion in 2030, it will scan for rare flashes of light made by elusive particles as they briefly become tangible in the ocean depths. Every second, about 100 billion ghost particles, called neutrinos, pass through each square centimeter of your body. And yet, true to their spooky nickname, neutrinos' nonexistent electrical charge and almost-zero mass mean they barely interact with other types of matter.  But by slowing neutrinos down, physicists can trace some of the particles' origins billions of light-years away to ancient, cataclysmic stellar explosions and galactic collisions. That's where the ocean bell comes in.  "Using Earth as a shield, TRIDENT will detect neutrinos penetrating from the opposite side of the planet," Xu Donglian, the project's chief scientist, told journalists at a news conference Oct. 10. "As TRIDENT is near the equator, it can receive neutrinos coming from all directions with the rotation of the Earth, enabling all-sky observation without any blind spots."

Continue Reading.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

DUNE scientists observe first neutrinos with prototype detector at Fermilab

Symmetry magazine,

The prototype of a novel particle detection system for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment successfully recorded its first accelerator neutrinos.

In a major step for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, scientists have detected the first neutrinos using a DUNE prototype particle detector at the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

DUNE, currently under construction, will be the most comprehensive neutrino experiment in the world. It will bring scientists closer to solving some of the biggest physics mysteries in the universe, including searching for the origin of matter and learning more about supernovae and black hole formation.

Display of a candidate neutrino interaction recorded by the 2×2 detector highlighting the four internal detector modules and native 3D imaging capability. The bottom image additionally shows the detectors surrounding the 2×2 for further tracking of incoming and exiting particles. The DUNE Near Detector will similarly consist of a modular liquid argon detector along with a muon tracker.

Courtesy of DUNE Collaboration

Since DUNE will feature new designs and technology, scientists are testing prototype equipment and components in preparation for the final detector installation. In February, the DUNE team finished the installation of their latest prototype detector in the path of an existing neutrino beamline at Fermilab. On July 10, the team announced that they successfully recorded their first accelerator-produced neutrinos in the prototype detector, a step toward validating the design.

“This is a truly momentous milestone demonstrating the potential of this technology,” says Louise Suter, a Fermilab scientist who coordinated the module installation. “It is fantastic to see this validation of the hard work put into designing, building and installing the detector.”

The new neutrino detection system is part of the plan for DUNE’s near detector complex that will be built on the Fermilab site. Its prototype—known as the 2×2 prototype because it has four modules arranged in a square—records particle tracks with liquid argon time projection chambers. The final version of the DUNE near detector will feature 35 liquid argon modules, each larger than those in the prototype. The modules will help navigate the enormous flux of neutrinos expected at the near site.

The 2×2 prototype implements novel technologies that enable a new regime of detailed, cutting-edge neutrino imaging to handle the unique conditions in DUNE. It has a millimeter-sized pixel readout system, developed by a team at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that allows for high-precision 3D imaging on a large scale. This, coupled with its modular design, sets the prototype apart from previous neutrino detectors like ICARUS and MicroBooNE.

Now, the 2×2  prototype provides the first accelerator-neutrino data to be analyzed by the DUNE collaboration. 

DUNE is split between two locations hundreds of miles apart: a beam of neutrinos originating at Fermilab, close to Chicago, will pass through a particle detector located on the Fermilab site, then travel 800 miles through the ground to huge detectors at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

The DUNE detector at Fermilab will analyze the neutrino beam close to its origin, where the beam is extremely intense. Collaborators expect this near detector to record about 50 interactions per pulse, which will come every second, amounting to hundreds of millions of neutrino detections over DUNE’s many expected years of operation. Scientists will also use DUNE to study neutrinos’ antimatter counterpart, antineutrinos.

This unprecedented flux of accelerator-made neutrinos and antineutrinos will enable DUNE’s ambitious science goals: Physicists will study the particles with DUNE’s near and far detectors to learn more about how they change type as they travel, a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation. By looking for differences between neutrino oscillations and antineutrino oscillations, physicists will seek evidence for a broken symmetry known as CP violation to determine whether neutrinos might be responsible for the prevalence of matter in our universe.

The DUNE collaboration is made up of more than 1,400 scientists and engineers from over 200 research institutions. Nearly 40 of these institutions work on the near detector. Specifically, hardware development of the 2×2 prototype was led by the University of Bern in Switzerland, DOE’s Fermilab, Berkeley Lab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, with significant contributions from many universities.

“It is wonderful to see the success of the technology we developed to measure neutrinos in such a high-intensity beam,” says Michele Weber, a professor at the University of Bern—where the concept of the modular design was born and where the four modules were assembled and tested—who leads the effort behind the new particle detection system. “A successful demonstration of this technology’s ability to record multiple neutrino interactions simultaneously will pave the way for the construction of the DUNE liquid argon near detector.”

Next steps

Testing the 2×2 prototype is necessary to demonstrate that the innovative design and technology are effective on a large scale to meet the near detector’s requirements. A modular liquid-argon detector capable of detecting high rates of neutrinos and antineutrinos has never been built or tested before. 

The existing Fermilab beamline is an ideal place for testing and presents an exciting opportunity for the researchers to measure these mysterious particles. It is currently running in “antineutrino mode,” so DUNE scientists will use the 2×2 prototype to study the interactions between antineutrinos and argon. When antineutrinos hit argon atoms, as they will in the argon-filled near detector, they interact and produce other particles. The prototype will observe what kinds of particles are produced and how often. Studying these antineutrino interactions will prepare scientists to compare neutrino and antineutrino oscillations with DUNE. 
“Analyzing this data is a great opportunity for our early-career scientists to gain experience,” says Kevin Wood, the first run coordinator for the 2×2 prototype and a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab, where the prototype’s novel readout system was developed. “The neutrino interactions imaged by the 2×2 prototype will provide a highly anticipated dataset for our graduate students, postdocs and other young collaborators to analyze as we continue to prepare to bring DUNE online.” 
The DUNE collaboration plans to bombard the 2×2 prototype with antineutrinos from the Fermilab beam for several months.

“This is an exciting milestone for the 2×2 team and the entire DUNE collaboration,” says Sergio Bertolucci, professor of physics at the University of Bologna in Italy and co-spokesperson of DUNE with Mary Bishai of Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Let this be the first of many neutrino interactions for DUNE!”

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neutrino detector data show terrestrial backgrounds from nuclear reactors, so how large would a neutrino detector need to be in order to track nuclear submarines?

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Could we put a big neutrino detector on Pluto or something?