Major milestone for JUNO experiment as knowledge taking begins – Information

University of Liverpool physicists, who’re a part of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment in China, are celebrating because the world’s largest liquid-scintillator neutrino detector achieves a serious milestone.

After greater than a decade of preparation and building, JUNO has efficiently accomplished the filling of its 20,000 tons of liquid scintillator and has now begun knowledge taking.  JUNO is the primary of a brand new technology of very giant neutrino experiments to achieve this stage.

Initial trial operation and knowledge taking present that key efficiency indicators met or exceeded design expectations, enabling JUNO to sort out one among this decade’s main open questions in particle physics: the ordering of neutrino plenty—whether or not the third mass state (ν₃) is heavier than the second (ν₂).

Professor Costas Andreopoulos, Chair of Experimental Particle Physics on the University of Liverpool and PI of the Liverpool JUNO crew, mentioned: “JUNO’s transition to data taking is the beginning of an exciting new chapter for neutrino physics. The experiment’s unique capabilities will deliver unprecedented precision in neutrino measurements, and our Liverpool team is proud to be developing simulation tools and analysis methods that will help turn this wealth of data into major scientific discoveries.”

Professor Yifang Wang, a researcher on the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and JUNO spokesperson, mentioned: “Completing the filling of the JUNO detector and starting data taking marks a historic milestone. For the first time, we have in operation a detector of this scale and precision dedicated to neutrinos. JUNO will allow us to answer fundamental questions about the nature of matter and the universe.”

Located 700 metres underground close to Jiangmen metropolis within the Guangdong Province, JUNO detects antineutrinos produced 53 kilometres away by the Taishan and Yangjiang nuclear energy crops and measures their vitality spectrum with document precision. Unlike different approaches, JUNO’s dedication of the mass ordering is unbiased of matter results within the Earth and largely freed from parameter degeneracies.

JUNO can even ship order‑of‑magnitude enhancements within the precision of a number of neutrino‑oscillation parameters and allow chopping‑edge research of neutrinos from the Sun, supernovae, the environment, and the Earth. It can even open new home windows to discover unknown physics, together with searches for sterile neutrinos and proton decay.

At the guts of JUNO is the most important liquid scintillator detector ever constructed (20,000 tons), housed on the centre of a 44‑meter‑deep water pool. A 41.1‑meter‑diameter chrome steel truss helps the 35.4‑meter acrylic sphere, the scintillator, 20,000 20‑inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), 25,600 3‑inch PMTs, entrance‑finish electronics, cabling, anti‑magnetic compensation coils, and optical panels. All PMTs function concurrently to seize scintillation mild from neutrino interactions and convert it to electrical indicators.

Professor Xiaoyan Ma, JUNO Chief Engineer, remarked: “Building JUNO has been a journey of extraordinary challenges. It demanded not only new ideas and technologies, but also years of careful planning, testing, and perseverance. Meeting the stringent requirements of purity, stability, and safety called for the dedication of hundreds of engineers and technicians. Their teamwork and integrity turned a bold design into a functioning detector, ready now to open a new window on the neutrino world.”

JUNO is hosted by the IHEP and includes greater than 700 researchers from 74 establishments throughout 17 international locations and areas.

ProfessorGioacchino Ranucci, Deputy spokesperson of JUNO and a Professor on the University of Milano and INFN-Milano, mentioned: “The landmark achievement that we announce today is also a result of the fruitful international cooperation ensured by many research groups outside China, bringing to JUNO their expertise from previous liquid scintillator set-ups. The worldwide liquid scintillator community has pushed the technology to its ultimate frontier, opening the path towards the ambitious physics goals of the experiment.”

JUNO is designed for a scientific lifetime of as much as 30 years, with a reputable improve path towards a world‑main seek for neutrinoless double‑beta decay. Such an improve would probe absolutely the neutrino mass scale and check whether or not neutrinos are Majorana particles, addressing elementary questions spanning particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, and profoundly shaping our understanding of the universe.

Image: The JUNO detector seen from outdoors.