£65m for Global Physics Project Led in UK by Professor Alfons Weber

Last week UK Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson signed an agreement with the US Energy Department to invest £65million in the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). The experiment will study the properties of mysterious particles called neutrinos, potentially unravelling a greater understanding about how the universe works and why matter exists at all.

Professor Alfons Weber, Pembroke Rokos-Clarendon Fellow in Physics and the UK PI of the project commented:

‘This is a dream come true. We have been working hard over the last few years to develop the techniques needed to be able to build this experiment. Our partners in the north have concentrated on the readout structures, while we in Oxford have taken the lead in the development of the data acquisition system.

We have an excellent team that came up with innovative solutions. These detectors have to be huge as neutrinos interact so rarely. You have to optimise the cost so that we can build the biggest detector possible, but at the same time it has to be sensitive enough to be able to still measure these feeble interactions. I am now organising a design study to specify the near detector, which is an essential tool to characterise the neutrino beam and interactions.’

The LBNF will be the most intense high-energy neutrino beam, firing neutrinos 1300 km from Fermilab in Illinois towards the 70,000 ton DUNE detector at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, in order to study neutrino oscillations.

DUNE scientists will look for differences in behaviour between neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts, antineutrinos, which could give us clues as to why we live in a matter-dominated universe – addressing big questions such as why are we here, rather than being annihilated after the Big Bang?

DUNE will also watch for neutrinos produced when a star explodes, which could reveal the formation of neutron stars and black holes, and will investigate whether protons live forever or eventually decay, bringing us closer to fulfilling Einstein’s dream of a grand unified theory.

It is anticipated that the experiment will attract students and young scientists from around the world, helping to foster the next generation of leaders in the field and to maintain the highly skilled, global scientific workforce.

More information about the project can be found here. Watch this video to find out more about DUNE.