DUNE UK-Latin America Initiative, school in the UK
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The US-hosted DUNE experiment is a major international particle physics project and with over 1400 collaborators from 30 institutions in over 30 countries is comparable in size to the experiments running at the LHC at CERN. It is designed to study oscillations of neutrinos emitted from Fermilab near Chicago to the SURF Laboratory in South Dakota 1300 km away. The 70 000 tonne liquid argon detectors allow addressing the the highest-level scientific goals and big questions in physics:
- Discovery and measurements of neutrino CP violation, a key ingredient in understanding the matter dominance in our Universe, as well as searches for physics beyond the standard paradigm;
- Observation of the electron neutrino burst from a galactic core-collapse supernova;
- Search for proton decay, expected in most models of new physics, but not yet observed.
These are questions at the forefront of particle physics research and require a major international project such as DUNE to resolve.
The aim of this proposal is to continue developing a research network between UK and Latin American institutions with the long-term goal of delivering economic benefit to Latin American countries by enhancing scientific and technological capabilities. Meaningful involvement of Latin American groups in the science, construction and operation of DUNE would boost the development of experimental particle physics in these countries, and allow them to benefit from knowledge exchange brought about through international collaboration. DUNE provides a remarkable and inspiring opportunity for nations around the globe to collaborate on the largest and most ambitious neutrino experiment to date.
- Discovery and measurements of neutrino CP violation, a key ingredient in understanding the matter dominance in our Universe, as well as searches for physics beyond the standard paradigm;
- Observation of the electron neutrino burst from a galactic core-collapse supernova;
- Search for proton decay, expected in most models of new physics, but not yet observed.
These are questions at the forefront of particle physics research and require a major international project such as DUNE to resolve.
The aim of this proposal is to continue developing a research network between UK and Latin American institutions with the long-term goal of delivering economic benefit to Latin American countries by enhancing scientific and technological capabilities. Meaningful involvement of Latin American groups in the science, construction and operation of DUNE would boost the development of experimental particle physics in these countries, and allow them to benefit from knowledge exchange brought about through international collaboration. DUNE provides a remarkable and inspiring opportunity for nations around the globe to collaborate on the largest and most ambitious neutrino experiment to date.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Andrzej Szelc (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | This award served to organize a school to train early career researchers from Latin American countries in LArSoft - the software used by the DUNE neutrino experiment. A second goal was to rekindle the partnerships between UK and Latin American institutions in the framework of the DUNE experiment, which were weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The school enabled the LA ECRs to attend the DUNE collaboration meeting held in Manchester and for some of them to meet their collaborators in person for the first time in their career. |
| Exploitation Route | The Latin American researchers have been trained in the use of the software used in DUNE, which primarily helped them contribute more to the DUNE physics programme, but in parallel, thanks to dedicated sessions on visualisations and machine learning, helped them develop general computing skills which could be used outside of academia. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education |
| Description | Edinburgh - UTFPR Curitiba |
| Organisation | Federal University of ParanĂ¡ |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We began a collaboration on mathematical modelling of scintillation light propagation in liquid argon detectors. We provided the know how of simulating scintillation light in large Liquid argon detectors. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We began a collaboration on mathematical modelling of scintillation light propagation in liquid argon detectors. UTFPR provided mathematical tools to pose the problem in an analytical form. |
| Impact | We are preparing a publication on this work. |
| Start Year | 2023 |