Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment


The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is a neutrino experiment under construction, with a near detector at Fermilab and a far detector at the Sanford Underground Research Facility that will observe neutrinos produced at Fermilab. It will fire an intense beam of trillions of neutrinos from a production facility at Fermilab. About 870,000 tons of rock will be excavated to create the caverns for the far detectors. More than 1,000 collaborators work on the project.
The primary science objectives of DUNE are
The far detector current design is for four modules of instrumented liquid argon with a fiducial volume of 10 kilotons each. The first two modules are expected to be complete in 2024, with the beam operational in 2026. The final module is planned to be operational in 2027.
In 2017, the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council announced a £65M investment in DUNE and LBNF.
Excavation of the far detector cavities began on July 21, 2017, and prototype detectors are being constructed and tested at CERN. The first of the two prototypes, the single-phase ProtoDUNE, recorded its first particle tracks in September 2018. CERN's participation in DUNE marked a new direction in CERN’s neutrino’s research and the experiments are referred to as part of the Neutrino Platform in the laboratory's research programme.

History

The project was originally started as a US-only project called the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment ; in around 2012-2014 a descope was considered with a near-surface detector to reduce cost. However, the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel concluded in its 2014 report that the research activity being pursued by LBNE "should be reformulated under the auspices of a new international collaboration, as an internationally coordinated and internationally funded program, with Fermilab as host", reverting to a deep-underground detector. The LBNE collaboration was officially dissolved on January 30, 2015, shortly after the new collaboration recommended by P5 was formed on January 22, 2015. The new collaboration selected the name Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.