Search  
DOE Pulse

ArgoNeuT experiment sees first neutrinos

A screen capture of ArgoNeuT's first neutrino event.




A screen capture of ArgoNeuT's first neutrino
event.

An experiment that could help revamp neutrino research recently took a big step forward. The Argon Neutrino Teststand at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory recorded its first neutrinos, the first ever seen in a liquid-argon detector in the United States. The liquid-argon technology could be key to unveiling the role that neutrinos played in the early universe. Liquid-argon detectors can achieve higher accuracy in determining the type of particle interaction than other neutrino detector.

ArgoNeuT will help scientists make the case for larger, more powerful neutrino detectors.  “Seeing these neutrino interactions is another step towards showing us that we can build these detectors for the long baseline neutrino oscillation program at the proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory,” said Yale University physicist Bonnie Fleming, ArgoNeuT spokesperson.

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