Inside the first ProtoDUNE detector, before it
was filled with liquid argon. Photo: CERN
Officials with CERN
and Fermilab announced the
first particle tracks recorded by ProtoDUNE, the largest liquid-argon neutrino
detector in the world. The ProtoDUNE detector was built at CERN, the European laboratory
for particle physics. The
first of two ProtoDUNE detectors is the size of a three-story house and the
shape of a gigantic cube. This accomplishment opens a new chapter in the story
of the international Deep Underground
Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).
Researchers in the Department
of Physics at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology,
are playing an integral role in both ProtoDUNE and DUNE.
DUNE is hosted by the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
in Illinois. The DUNE detector modules are being constructed at the Sanford Underground
Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota and they will each be
20 times larger than the prototypes.
“The world-class DUNE
program, with ProtoDUNE at CERN and DUNE at the Sanford Underground
Research Facility, will continue to provide excellent research opportunities at
Mines for decades to come. Our faculty and students will lead efforts to
answer some of the most fundamental questions about our universe,”
says Richard Schnee, Ph.D.,
and the head of SD Mines Department of Physics.
Juergen Reichenbacher,
Ph.D., an assistant professor of physics at Mines is leading an effort to
screen materials in ProtoDune and DUNE for radioactivity before installation.
An understanding of the background radiation in the detector components is
essential to a successful experiment. Undergraduate students Layne Tieszen,
Sage Preble and Thomas Hayes worked with Reichenbacher to build several large
radioactivity sensors at Mines for screening of ProtoDUNE and DUNE detector
components. Reichenbacher and his graduate student Jason Stock developed a
full-blown computer simulation of all radioactivity backgrounds in the DUNE
detectors. Jason Stock produced these computing intense simulations, using up
to 10,000 cores on a computer cluster at Fermilab. These extensive computer
simulations have already been applied by many participating university groups
around the world to develop DUNE’s detector electronics. Reichenbacher and his
other graduate student James Haiston are also planning to deploy a low-level
radioactive source into the existing ProtoDUNE detector during a future run of
this experiment. This work is key in the effort to calibrate the much larger
DUNE detector going into the Sanford Lab. Reichenbacher’s, Stock’s and
Haiston’s work will help DUNE’s ability to detect exploding stars.
Luke Corwin, Ph.D., an assistant
professor of physics at Mines is working on the light detectors that can
indicate when various charged particles are emitted during a neutrino
interaction with the liquid argon inside the detector. As part of this work,
Corwin, graduate student Michelle While, and undergraduate student John Wieland
are undertaking environmental survival testing of the ProtoDUNE photodetectors.
This will help insure the detectors will not be affected by high heat or
humidity during storage or shipping. Corwin has also built a high sensitivity
radon monitor and is planning to use it to measure the amount of radon in the liquid
argon at ProtoDUNE during an upcoming run of the experiment.
David Martinez Caicedo,
Ph.D., a new assistant professor of physics at Mines, will work within the
DUNE photon detection consortium. He will study ways to improve the light
detector systems in DUNE and examine the performance of a new type of
light detectors that are partially employed at ProtoDUNE. Martinez Caicedo is
the newest member of the growing physics department at Mines and his research
on both ProtoDune and DUNE will likely expand in the future.
Researchers at Mines
were on hand at
the groundbreaking ceremony for the far DUNE detector at SURF in
July of 2017. Mines researchers will continue to play an important role in DUNE
for the life of the experiment which could be operational into the 2030’s. SD Mines
is the closest engineering and science university to the Sanford Lab and Mines researchers are
vital to a wide range of experiments at the facility.