Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment Research Articles

Spin-flavor precession phase effects in supernova

We study the phase effects driven by neutrino magnetic moment for Majorana neutrinos in a core collapse supernova. A neutrino with a large magnetic moment is emitted in a superposition of energy eigenstates from the neutrinosphere. These energy eigenstates can interfere to create a phase effect at a partially adiabatic spin flavor precession (SFP) resonance. We examine the dependence of the SFP phase effect on the size of the neutrino magnetic moment as well as its variation with the post-bounce time. In particular, at late post-bounce times the SFP resonance becomes wider and eventually overlaps with the Mikheev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) resonance. At this point Landau–Zener criteria for adiabaticity can no longer be applied to individual resonances, but we show that SFP phase effect is still present after the overlap. We also discuss the observability of the SFP phase effect at Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Our analysis reveals that at low energies event rates do not fluctuate despite the presence of a sizable SFP phase effect. We find larger event rate fluctuations at high energies, but these fluctuations are also erased in the energy spectra of the observed charged leptons. A more refined treatment of electron fraction and the inclusion of neutrino-neutrino interactions may change our conclusions for observability in future studies.

Heavy neutral leptons from kaons in effective field theory

In the framework of the low-energy effective theory containing, in addition to the Standard-Model fields, heavy neutral leptons (HNLs), we compute the decay rates of neutral and charged kaons into HNLs. We consider both lepton-number-conserving and lepton-number-violating four-fermion operators, taking into account also the contribution of active-heavy neutrino mixing. Assuming that the produced HNLs are long-lived, we perform simulations and calculate the sensitivities of future long-lived-particle (LLP) detectors at the high-luminosity LHC as well as the near detector of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE-ND) to the considered scenario. When applicable, we also recast the existing bounds on the minimal mixing case obtained by NA62, T2K, and PS191. Our findings show that, while the future LHC LLP detectors can probe currently allowed parameter space only in certain benchmark scenarios, DUNE-ND should be sensitive to parameter space beyond the current bounds in almost all the benchmark scenarios, and, for some of the effective operators considered, it can even probe new-physics scales in excess of 3000 TeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Leptonic neutral-current probes in a short-distance DUNE-like setup

Precision measurements of neutrino-electron scattering may provide a viable way to test the nonminimal form of the charged and neutral current weak interactions within a hypothetical near-detector setup for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Although low-statistics, these processes are clean and provide information complementing the results derived from oscillation studies. They could shed light on the scale of neutrino mass generation in low-scale seesaw schemes. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

A novel proton decay signature at DUNE, JUNO, and Hyper-K

Proton decay, although unobserved so far, is a natural expectation when attempting to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe. p→K+ν¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ p\ o {K}^{+}\\overline{\ u} $$\\end{document} or p→K+χ~10\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ p\ o {K}^{+}{\\overset{\\sim }{\\chi}}_1^0 $$\\end{document}, with χ~10\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {\\overset{\\sim }{\\chi}}_1^0 $$\\end{document} a light exotic neutral particle, represent possible decay channels achievable in models of physics beyond the Standard Model, such as the MSSM with trilinear R-parity-violating terms, or the Standard Model extended by a heavy neutral lepton. Among the decay products of these modes, the neutral fermions would typically appear as missing energy in collider searches. The present study considers how such decay modes could be differentiated in experimental settings, as the exotic χ~10\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {\\overset{\\sim }{\\chi}}_1^0 $$\\end{document} may further decay if it is not protected by a symmetry (such as R-parity in the MSSM). We assess the detection prospects of the proposed experiments DUNE, JUNO and Hyper-K in this context.

Future Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiments

Long-baseline neutrino experiments represent the optimal platforms for probing the lepton Yukawa sector of the Standard Model, and significant experiments are either under construction or in the planning stages. This review delves into the scientific motivations behind these facilities, which stem from the pivotal 2012 discovery of the θ13 mixing angle. We provide an overview of the two ongoing projects, DUNE and HyperKamiokande, detailing their physics potential and the technical hurdles they face. Furthermore, we briefly examine proposals for forthcoming endeavors and innovative concepts that could push beyond conventional Superbeam technology.

Static friction testing of various materials in liquid nitrogen

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment will utilize charge readout planes (CRPs) that are submerged within liquid argon. These charge readout planes are part of a drift detector used measure the cascade of charged particles generated by the interaction of neutrinos with the argon nuclei. The CRPs require specially designed supports to ensure they remain precisely positioned even after the thermal contraction of the sensors and the cryostat that occurs during cooldown. These supports must also protect the cryostat floor and CRPs from potential damage due to thermal strain during cooldown. These objectives are satisfied by utilizing an intermediate slip plane within the support to provide a stress relief point with a lower friction coefficient than the interface between the sensor support and the cryostat floor. Therefore, the design of these supports requires knowledge of the static coefficient of friction for various materials at cryogenic temperatures. It was found that the coefficient of friction associated with materials such as metals, ceramics, and polymers have been studied very little at cryogenic temperatures. Specifically, there is not much data relative to the static coefficient of friction associated with polymers at low temperatures. Therefore, a test apparatus was developed to measure various materials’ cryogenic static coefficient of friction with the geometry required for the support design. Several tests with different materials were carried out using this test apparatus to identify a material combination with very different static coefficients of friction that can be used for the membrane to support interface and intermediate slip plane.

Contribution of Neutrino-dominated Accretion Flows to the Cosmic MeV Neutrino Background

Neutrino-dominated accretion flows (NDAFs) are one of the important MeV neutrino sources and significantly contribute to the cosmic diffuse neutrino background. In this paper, we investigate the spectrum of the diffuse NDAF neutrino background (DNNB) by fully considering the effects of the progenitor properties and initial explosion energies based on core-collapse supernova (CCSN) simulations, and estimate the detectable event rate by the Super-Kamiokande detector. We find that the predicted background neutrino flux is mainly determined by the typical CCSN initial explosion energy and progenitor metallicity. For the optimistic cases, in which the typical initial explosion energy is low, the diffuse flux of the DNNB is comparable to the diffuse supernova neutrino background, which might be detected by upcoming larger neutrino detectors, such as Hyper-Kamiokande, the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Moreover, the strong outflows from NDAFs could dramatically decrease their contribution to the neutrino background.

NSI effects on tripartite entanglement in neutrino oscillations

In this study, we investigate the impact of new physics on different measures of tripartite entanglement within the context of three-flavor neutrino oscillations. These measures encompass concurrence, entanglement of formation, and negativity. We analyze the influence of new physics on these measures across a range of experimental setups involving both reactors and accelerators. Reactor experiments under consideration include Daya Bay, JUNO, and KamLAND setups, while accelerator experiments encompass T2K, MINOS, and DUNE. Our analysis reveals that accelerator experiments demonstrate greater sensitivity to NSI, with the most pronounced impact observed in the DUNE experiment. Negativity, while a weaker metric compared to EOF and concurrence, exhibits maximal sensitivity to NSI effects, particularly evident when neutrinos possess moderate to high energies. Conversely, reactor experiments demonstrate less sensitivity to NSI, with concurrence and EOF displaying more prominent effects.

Quantum decoherence effects on precision measurements at DUNE and T2HK

We investigate the potential impact of neutrino quantum decoherence on the precision measurements of standard neutrino oscillation parameters in the DUNE and T2HK experiments. We show that the measurement of δCP, sin2⁡θ13 and sin2⁡θ23 is stronger effected in DUNE than in T2HK. On the other hand, DUNE would have a better sensitivity than T2HK to observe decoherence effects. By performing a combined analysis of DUNE and T2HK we show that a robust measurement of standard parameters would be possible, which is not guaranteed with DUNE data alone.

Resonances of Supernova Neutrinos in Twisting Magnetic Fields.

We investigate the effect of resonant spin conversion of the neutrinos induced by the geometrical phase in a twisting magnetic field. We find that the geometrical phase originating from the rotation of the transverse magnetic field along the neutrino trajectory can trigger a resonant spin conversion of Dirac neutrinos inside the supernova, even if there were no such transitions in the fixed-direction field case. We have shown that, even though resonant spin conversion is too weak to affect solar neutrinos, it could have a remarkable consequence on supernova neutronization bursts where very intense magnetic fields are quite likely. We demonstrate how the flavor composition at Earth can be used as a probe to establish the presence of non-negligible magnetic moments, potentially down to 10^{-15}μ_{B} in upcoming neutrino experiments like the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and the Hyper-Kamiokande. Possible implications are analyzed.

DUNE potential as a new physics probe

Neutrino experiments, in the next years, aim to determine with precision all the six parameters of the three-neutrino standard paradigm. The complete success of the experimental program is, nevertheless, attached to the non-existence (or at least smallness) of Non-Standard Interactions (NSI). In this work, anticipating the data taken from long-baseline neutrino experiments, we map all the weakly coupled theories that could induce sizable NSI, with the potential to be determined in these experiments, in particular DUNE. Once present constraints from other experiments are taken into account, in particular charged-lepton flavor violation, we find that only models containing leptoquarks (scalar or vector) and/or neutral isosinglet vector bosons are viable. We provide the explicit matching formulas connecting weakly coupled models and NSI, both in propagation and production. Departing from the weakly coupled completion with masses at TeV scale, we also provide a global fit on all NSI for DUNE, finding that NSI smaller than 10−2 cannot be probed even in the best-case scenario.

Cryogenic acoustic microscopy and evaulation of electronic components

Electronics operating at cryogenic temperatures are essential in fields like space exploration and particle physics. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a next generation particle physics experiment, will rely on tens of thousands of custom designed application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) operating directly in liquid argon (87 K) for decades without repair or replacement. Ensuring circuit functional reliability throughout the duration of the experiment is mission critical. Both functional and nondestructive testing are employed to safeguard circuit quality and reliability. Part of this work involves the design, testing, and data analysis of a cryogenic acoustic microscope (CryoSAM) operating at 15 MHz. The CryoSAM is capable of interrogating ASICs at both room temperature (300 K) and in liquid nitrogen (77 K), identifying acoustic anomalies likely arising from thermal stress and manufacturing-related defects, using a powerful correlation analysis technique. These anomalies can lead to functional degradation and suboptimal electronic performance of the circuit sensors. Image analysis and correlations are used to compare differences seen before and after cryogenic temperature cycling. Data are reported that were collected at both room temperature and when cooled using liquid nitrogen. Designs and challenges of operating the instrument at cryogenic temperatures are also discussed.

X-Arapuca long term test

The photon detection system of the DUNE experiment is based on the X-ARAPUCA light trap. The basic elements of the X-ARAPUCA are the dichroic filters coated with wavelength shifter (para-Therphenyl), a waveshifting plate and an array of SiPMs which detects the trapped photons. A small scale prototype of the X-ARAPUCA has been installed in liquid argon in a dedicated facility at INFN-Napoli and exposed to alpha particles from a source. In order to test the stability of the overall device response the X-ARAPUCA was kept for 10 days in continuously purified liquid argon. The performed tests allowed for a preliminary estimation of the X-ARAPUCA absolute photon detection efficiency.

Long-lived neutral fermions at the DUNE near detector

At the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a proton beam hits a fixed target leading to large production rates of mesons. These mesons can decay and potentially provide a source of long-lived neutral fermions. Examples of such long-lived fermions are heavy neutral leptons which can mix with the standard-model active neutrinos, and the bino-like lightest neutralino in R-parity-violating supersymmetry. We show that the Standard Model Effective Field Theory extended with right-handed singlet neutrinos can simultaneously describe heavy neutral leptons and bino-like neutralinos in a unified manner. We use the effective-field-theory framework to determine the sensitivity reach of the DUNE near detector in probing various scenarios of long-lived neutral fermions.

Kubernetes for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment Data Acquisition

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino experiment based in the USA which is expected to start taking data in 2029. DUNE aims to precisely measure neutrino oscillation parameters by detecting neutrinos from the LBNF beamline (Fermilab) at the Far Detector, 1,300 kilometres away, in South Dakota at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. The Far Detector will consist of four cryogenic Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detectors of 17 kT, each producing more than 1 TB/sec of data. The main requirements for the data acquisition system are the ability to run continuously for extended periods of time, with a 99% up-time requirement, and the functionality to record both beam neutrinos and low energy neutrinos from the explosion of a neighbouring supernova, should one occur during the lifetime of the experiment. The key challenges are the high data rates that the detectors generate and the deep underground environment, which places constraints on power and space. To overcome these challenges, DUNE plans to use a highly optimised C++ software suite and a server farm of about 110 nodes continuously running about two hundred multicore processes located close to the detector, 1.5 kilometres underground. Thirty nodes will be at the surface and will run around two hundred processes simultaneously. DUNE is studying the use of the Kubernetes framework to manage containerised workloads and take advantage of its resource definitions and high up-time services to run the DAQ system. Progress in deploying these systems at the CERN neutrino platform on the prototype DUNE experiments is reported.

Status of DUNE Offline Computing

We summarize the status of Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Offline Software and Computing program. We describe plans for the computing infrastructure needed to acquire, catalog, reconstruct, simulate and analyze the data from the DUNE experiment and its prototypes in pursuit of the experiment’s physics goals of precision measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters, detection of astrophysical neutrinos, measurement of neutrino interaction properties and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. In contrast to traditional HEP computational problems, DUNE’s Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber data consist of simple but very large (many GB) data objects which share many characteristics with astrophysical images. We have successfully reconstructed and simulated data from 4% prototype detector runs at CERN. The data volume from the full DUNE detector, when it starts commissioning late in this decade will present memory management challenges in conventional processing but significant opportunities to use advances in machine learning and pattern recognition as a frontier user of High Performance Computing facilities capable of massively parallel processing. Our goal is to develop infrastructure resources that are flexible and accessible enough to support creative software solutions as HEP computing evolves.

Detectability of Late-time Supernova Neutrinos with Fallback Accretion onto Protoneutron Star

We investigate the late-time neutrino emission powered by fallback mass accretion onto a protoneutron star (PNS), using neutrino radiation-hydrodynamic simulations with full Boltzmann neutrino transport. We follow the time evolution of the accretion flow onto the PNS until the system reaches a quasi-steady state. A standing shock wave is commonly formed in the accretion flow, whereas the shock radius varies depending on the mass accretion rate and the PNS mass. A sharp increase in temperature emerges in the vicinity of the PNS (∼10 km), which characterizes neutrino emission. Both the neutrino luminosity and the average energy become higher with increasing mass accretion rate and PNS mass. The mean energy of the emitted neutrinos is in the range of 10 ≲ ϵ ≲ 20 MeV, which is higher than that estimated from PNS cooling models (≲10 MeV). Assuming a distance to core-collapse supernova of 10 kpc, we quantify neutrino event rates for Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). The estimated detection rates are well above the background, and their energy-dependent features are qualitatively different from those expected from PNS cooling models. Another notable feature is that the neutrino emission is strongly flavor dependent, exhibiting that the neutrino event rate hinges on the neutrino oscillation model. We estimate them in the case with the adiabatic Mikheev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein model, and show that the normal and inverted mass hierarchy offer a large number of neutrino detections in Super-K and DUNE, respectively. Hence the simultaneous observation with Super-K and DUNE of fallback neutrinos will provide a strong constraint on the neutrino mass hierarchy.

Cryogenic characterization of Hamamatsu HWB MPPCs for the DUNE photon detection system

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next generation experiment aimed to study neutrino oscillation. Its long-baseline configuration will exploit a Near Detector (ND) and a Far Detector (FD) located at a distance of ∼1300 km. The FD will consist of four Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr TPC) modules. A Photon Detection System (PDS) will be used to detect the scintillation light produced inside the detector after neutrino interactions. The PDS will be based on light collectors coupled to Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). Different photosensor technologies have been proposed and produced in order to identify the best samples to fullfill the experiment requirements. In this paper, we present the procedure and results of a validation campaign for the Hole Wire Bonding (HWB) MPPCs samples produced by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) for the DUNE experiment, referring to them as `SiPMs'. The protocol for a characterization at cryogenic temperature (77 K) is reported. We present the down-selection criteria and the results obtained during the selection campaign undertaken, along with a study of the main sources of noise of the SiPMs including the investigation of a newly observed phenomenon in this field.

DUNE Database Development

DUNE Database Development

Sanford Underground Research Facility’s approach to school education, community activities, and public outreach

The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) is the deepest underground science facility in the United States. SURF hosts world-leading experiments in neutrino, astroparticle and nuclear physics, as well as projects in biology, geology, and engineering, and is home to a major excavation project making space for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF), which will power the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). An emphasis on outreach and education is embedded in SURF’s mission statement: “to advance world-class science and inspire learning across generations.” To achieve this mission, SURF goes beyond established science communication methods, including operating an open-to-the-public visitor center, hosting multiple public outreach events per month, and an annual city-wide science festival. Furthermore, SURF is training K-12 science educators, developing school curriculum units, and providing classroom materials, based on science researched at the laboratory. The strategic approach, specific methods, and successful outcomes of these programs, which are based on SURF’s science, location, and community, may serve as examples for effective science education, public outreach, and community engagement.