The DUNE Experiment: An Overview
DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, http://www.dunescience.org) is a cutting-edge experiment collaboratively developed by the international neutrino physics community in order to further study neutrino science and proton decays. The experiment will be hosted at Fermilab (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) in Batavia, Illinois and will be supported by the LBNF (Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility). It will utilize the most intense neutrino beam and largest neutrino detector in the world to study one of the strangest and most abundant matter particle in the universe – the neutrino.
This program is an internationally designed, coordinated and funded program is currently made up of over 800 scientists from nearly 150 institutions in 27 countries and is currently projected to cost $1 billion USD. The map below illustrates the far-reaching collaborative nature of this project.
Map of International Collaboration of the DUNE Project (Countries participating are highlighted in orange)
Experimental goals
The primary aims of the DUNE collaboration are:
- Determine whether neutrinos have matter-antimatter asymmetry (through investigating the nature of neutrino oscillations and testing charge – parity violation) which will help scientists understand why matter generation was so much greater than antimatter generation in the early universe
- Resolve the ordering of the neutrino masses
- Find neutrinos beyond the three already discovered (tau, muon and electron neutrinos) such as fourth sterile neutrino, which only interacts with gravity
Useful Links
You can read more about the scientific goals of the DUNE project at the following links:
- DUNE prototype proposal – https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.01520 (You can also read through a shorter presentation of the proposal here)
- Fermilab website about the DUNE project – http://lbnf.fnal.gov/
- Official DUNE project website – http://www.dunescience.org/
- Collaboration list – https://dune.bnl.gov/people/members/export/?filename=iblist.txt&date=now