DUNE

Between Chicago and Sanford, South Dakota (USA), one of the most spectacular scientific experiments ever developed by mankind is under construction. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) aims to improve our understanding of neutrinos, the evasive particles that may provide answers to some of the key questions about the shape of the universe.

The most powerful neutrino beams ever created will be fired from the accelerator at Fermilab in Chicago. They will travel 1,300 kilometres (807 miles) underground to reach the distant detectors at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. For this purpose, a huge cavity has been excavated, covering an area equivalent to eight football fields, in which the ideal conditions for detecting and analysing neutrinos will be recreated.

The IGFAE is contributing to this project, which brings together more than 1 400 people and 200 institutions from 36 countries, with the design of one of the two ‘near’ detectors, ND-GAr (Near Detector – Gaseous Argon). This device will be installed in the coming years at Fermilab in Chicago, close to the point of emission of the neutrino beam.

This detector consists of a 100m3 time projection chamber (TPC), which combines electric and magnetic fields with argon-rich gases in the case of DUNE, thus making it possible to reconstruct the trajectory of the particles produced in the neutrino interactions.

The IGFAE team at DUNE is working on a proposal based on the use of ultrafast optical cameras (2 billionths of a second per image) at 10 atmospheres of pressure in argon doped with tetrafluoromethane. The technology, which has never been used before, will make it possible to record with millimetre precision the images of particles from the interaction of neutrinos over a region of 20 m2, pinpointing the instant of their interaction to just over a billionth of a second.

The IGFAE is in charge of the project, in close collaboration with the University of Vigo and the IFIC in Valencia. The aim is to complete a technical proposal for the design of the ND-GAr TPC by mid-2025.