by DARREN ORF
- Due to go online in 2028, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is designed to understand the evolution of “ghost particles” known as neutrinos and antineutrinos.
- While this could help scientists determine why matter dominated antimatter in the early universe, it could also help shed light on another physics idea—Large Extra Dimensions (LEDs).
- LEDs could explain why gravity is weaker than the other fundamental forces of nature, and why neutrinos have such tiny masses in the first place.
Although many fascinating experiments take place on land or even in orbit around the planet, some of the most fascinating science is taking place beneath our feet. The world’s premiere particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, is nestled safely below ground in Geneva, Switzerland. The world’s first laser interferometer, KAGRA, was built entirely underground, and its gravitational-wave detector ancestor, LIGO, similarly has infrastructure burried in the earth.
However, perhaps the most highly-anticipated subterranean science experiment is the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). As its name suggests, its primary mission is to study neutrinos and antineutrinos, sometimes known as “ghost particles” due to their famously elusive nature. DUNE has its work cut out for it, because these particles—in all three “flavors”—each contain a mass billions of times smaller than that of an electron. Even still, neutrinos and antineutrinos could be the explanation behind why matter won out against antimatter at the beginning of the universe, leading to the formation of… well… everything.
With a project of this size—around 800 miles long, to be precise—other discoveries are also possible. In fact, a recently published study in the Journal of High Energy Physics from the High Energy Physics Center at Chung-Ang University in South Korea indicates that DUNE could shed light on an idea known as Large Extra Dimensions, or LEDs.
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