1. General Seminars

Neutrinos and the Quantum Universe….. going International

by Nigel Lockyer (FNAL Director)

Europe/Rome
Aula Seminari (LNF INFN)

Aula Seminari

LNF INFN

Via Enrico Fermi, 40 00044 Frascati
Description
Neutrinos are the most numerous and enigmatic particles with mass in the universe by far. They have incredibly small masses, so small that the Higgs mechanism may not be the primary source of mass for neutrinos. We do not know the absolute masses of neutrinos, nor the mass ordering of the neutrino flavors. We know only the mass differences that arise from the fact that neutrinos have been shown to oscillate between different flavors, however with remarkably different properties from quark mixing. Neutrinos play a crucial role in the structural evolution of the universe. We do not know whether there are more than 3 types of neutrinos or whether the known 3 types have non-standard interactions. We also do not know to what extent neutrinos contribute to the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Many of these questions can be addressed by a large, accelerator based neutrino experiment. A new collaboration has just been formed with over 140 institutions from around the world. DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) is a proposed gigantic 40 kiloton (fiducial volume) liquid argon detector to be located deep underground in the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, with a fine-grained near detector at Fermilab.. Neutrinos are incredibly weakly interacting, and all accelerator based neutrino experiments are statistics limited. A newly upgraded accelerator complex at Fermilab is planned that can deliver 1.2 MW of beam power on target by 2025, and 2.4 MW several years later. Major platforms for R&D are being constructed at CERN and Fermilab. This international research program on neutrinos will be presented as well as the important role of India in the accelerator and experiment.