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DOE Pulse
  • Number 445  |
  • August 10, 2015

Fermilab sets neutrino beam record

Fermilab’s Main Injector particle accelerator.

Fermilab’s Main Injector particle accelerator.

A key element in particle accelerator-based neutrino experiments is the power of the proton beam that gives birth to neutrinos: The more protons you can pack into that beam, the higher the number of neutrinos produced and the better the chance to record neutrino interactions. This summer, scientists at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory set a world record for the production of high-energy neutrinos with a proton accelerator.

More than 1,000 physicists from around the world will use this high-intensity beam to more closely study neutrinos and fleeting particles called muons, both fundamental building blocks of our universe.

Laboratory-made neutrino experiments start by accelerating a beam of particles, typically protons, and smashing them into a target to create neutrinos (see video animation). Scientists then use particle detectors to “catch” as many of those neutrinos as possible and record their interactions. Neutrinos rarely engage with matter: Only one out of every trillion emerging from the proton beam will interact in an experiment’s detector. The more particles in that beam, the more opportunities researchers will have to study rare neutrino interactions.

The amped-up particle beam provided by Fermilab’s Main Injector particle accelerator positions the laboratory to become the primary laboratory for accelerator-based neutrino research. Neutrinos are also made in stars and in the Earth’s core, and they pass through everything — people and planets alike.

Fermilab currently operates four neutrino experiments: MicroBooNE, MINERvA, MINOS+ and the laboratory’s largest-to-date neutrino experiment, NOvA, which sends particles from Fermilab’s suburban Chicago location to a particle detector 500 miles away in Ash River, Minnesota.

The laboratory is working with scientists from around the world on expanding its short-baseline neutrino program and would also serve as host to the proposed flagship Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and its Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. DUNE scientists aim to address questions about the mass and properties of each kind of neutrino, catch neutrinos from a supernova, and advance our understanding of the role neutrinos played in the evolution of the universe.

[Kurt Riesselmann, 630.840.5681,
kurtr@fnal.gov]