Search for new physics and technological advancements from neutrino experiments at the high intensity frontier. A cooperative Europe - United States - Brazil effort.

Project Information

SENSE

Grant agreement ID: 101081478

DOI

10.3030/101081478

EC signature date 6 October 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 754 400,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DI PISA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SENSE (Search for new physics and technological advancements from neutrino experiments at the high intensity frontier. A cooperative Europe - United States - Brazil effort.)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

SENSE promotes the collaboration among European, American and Brazilian researchers involved in the most important research projects in the field of neutrino physics at the high intensity frontier. The observation of neutrino oscillations established a picture consistent with the mixing of three neutrino flavours in three mass eigenstates and small mass differences. Experimental anomalies suggest the existence of sterile neutrino states participating in the mixing and not coupling to the Standard Model gauge bosons. Lepton mixings and massive neutrinos offer a gateway to deviations from the Standard Model in the lepton sector including Charged Lepton Flavour Violation. The FNAL Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program based on three almost identical liquid argon Time Projection Chambers located along the Booster Neutrino Beam offers a compelling opportunity to resolve the anomalies and perform the most sensitive search for sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale through appearance and disappearance oscillation searches. MicroBooNE, ICARUS and SBND will search for the oscillation signal by comparing the neutrino event spectra measured at different distances from the source. The FNAL SBN program is a major step towards the global effort of the neutrino physics community in realising the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) which will provide fundamental contribution to the determination of neutrino mass ordering, measurement of CP violation, precision tests of the three-flavor oscillation paradigm using long-baseline flavor transition, search for nucleon decay and study of the burst of neutrinos from core-collapse supernova in the framework of multi-messenger astronomy. SENSE researchers have provided major contributions to the SBN and DUNE projects and will take leading roles in the commissioning of the detectors, data taking and analysis. These endeavors foster the development of cutting-edge technologies with spin-offs outside particle physics.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The SBND Collaboration completed the construction and installation of the cryostats, which employees the membrane technology recently transferred from the industry to the High Energy Physics community. SBND cryostat installation was completed in 2023. The installation of the SBND detector in the cryostat, including the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber, the Photon Detection System and the Cosmic Ray Tagger, was completed in 2024. Liquid Argon filling was completed in March 2024 and the Time Projection Chamber was brought to nominal voltage and took neutrino beam data in July 2024, until Fermilab beam shutdown in August 2024. SBND data taking was resumed in the fall 2024 along with ICARUS data taking (Run 4). SBND and ICARUS are collecting data (Run 4) and progressing in data analysis, including neutrino oscillation, neutrino cross sections and searcher for physics Beyond the Standard Model. The design of DUNE is progressing and the technological specifications of the DUNE Far Detector has been completed, with the Horizontal Drift and the Vertical Drift Technologies. The design of the DUNE Near Detector is progressing as well, with the construction of the 2x2 Demonstrator, a technical demonstrator of the ArgonCube detector concept. Between 2021 and 2023, the 2x2 Demonstrator modules were sequentially constructed and operated at the University of Ber, where they operated on cosmic ray muons. Immediately following these test runs, the four modules were shipped fully-assembled to Fermilab and in transported underground to the MINOS cavern in 2023. In early 2024 the modules began collecting commissioning data in the NuMI beam for the purpose of detector calibration. Visual scanning and data reconstruction allowed to reconstruct neutrino events. NuMI beam is not available in 2025 and will be resumed in 2026. The 2x2 Demonstrator will resume collecting neutrino data in 2026. The studies of the DUNE physics reach are progressing. This includes the development of the detector simulation and the optimisation of the reconstruction algorithms.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SENSE has been very successful in developing the field of neutrino physics and detectors based on the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) technology. The Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program at Fermilab is progressing with success and will continue at least through 2027 to perform a thorough seearch for the sterile neutrino. The data talking of the ICARUS Experiment, that is the Far Detector of the SBN Program, has been progressing smoothly since 2022 and the Experiment has already collected a statistics of more than 6 x 10E20 Proton on Target. The installation of the SBND Experiment, that is the Near Detector of the SBN Program, has been completed in 20'24 and SBND data taking is progressing smoothly in conjunction with ICARUS. This has demonstrated that the LArTPC technology allows to develop large scale Experiments, as DUNE. The technological choice for the DUNE Far Detectors has been made. The early prototypes and demonstrators have shown that the LArTPC based on the Horizontal Drift and the Vertical Drift can be adopted for the DUNE multi-kilo-ton detectors. The 2x2 Demonstrator tested at Fermilab in 2024 with the NuMI beam has demonstrated that the ArgonCube detector concept is a solution for the DUNE Near Detector. Further tests of this technology will be performed with the NuMI beam in 2026. The Physics reach of the DUNE Experiment has been thoroughly studied with Monte Carlo simulation, which shows that DUNE will successfully perform an investigation of neutrino oscillations to test CP violation in the lepton sector, the determination of the ordering of neutrino masses, and studies of neutrinos from supernovae and a search for proton decay, which has never been observed although predicted by theories that unify the fundamental forces.

DUNE

Icarus Internal

Neutrino Event reconstructed at SBND

SBND Installation in the cryostat at Fermilab

SBND

SBND Collaboration celebrating first neutrino data taking at Fermilab

Icarus installation in the cryostat at Fermilab

2x2 Prototype Detector installation at Fermilab