Making Tracks for the DUNE Project

ProtoDUNE, the World’s largest liquid-argon neutrino detector, a cube the size of a three story house which is based at CERN, has recorded its first particle tracks. The success also signals progression for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) under development in the US. When fully operational the DUNE project will study both neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts, giving possible clues as to why the visible universe is dominated by matter. The UK is investing £65million in this flagship global science project and many UK groups of scientists have been involved in the prototype research.

ProtoDUNE co-leader Professor Christos Touramanis, from the University of Liverpool, said: “The UK neutrino community has made crucial contributions in the construction, integration and installation and now commissioning and operation of ProtoDUNE. In addition the data acquisition team was jointly led by a UK and CERN physicist and many UK scientists working at CERN have been key in enabling the recording of these particle tracks so early in the commissioning stage.”

Professor Dave Newbold from the University of Bristol and the Director of the STFC Particle Physics Department said of the breakthrough "The work of UK scientists has been crucial in bringing ProtoDUNE from the drawing board to reality in record time. The delicate wire planes that are at the heart of the experiment, along with complex electronics needed to capture the data, were conceived, designed and built in labs across the country. We're now confident in our technology as we begin construction of the full DUNE detector, which will be an even more challenging project."

The ProtoDUNE detector is the first of two prototypes for what will be a much, much larger detector for the DUNE project, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States. When the first DUNE detector modules record data in 2026, they will each be 20 times larger than these prototypes.