DeKalb, IL – It sounds like it could be the set-up to a joke: What is the most abundant particle in the universe, is something that hardly anyone outside the scientific community has heard about, and really, really needs to be studied?
Construction workers in South Dakota created two colossal caverns, each more than 500 feet long and about seven stories tall, for the gigantic particle detector modules of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab. A third cavern will house utilities for the operation of the detector. Photo: Matthew Kapust, Sanford Underground Research Facility
The answer is neutrinos. And at NIU, they are a serious, if elusive, matter.
Trillions of neutrinos—infinitesimally small particles—are traveling through your body at this very moment. Learning more about them could shed light on some deep mysteries: Why is our universe composed of matter? How does an exploding star create a black hole? Are neutrinos connected to dark matter or other undiscovered particles?
Those questions are fueling work being conducted by a select group of students, staff and professors at NIU who are part of a mammoth effort known as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), encompassing over 1,400 scientists and engineers at 150 institutions across the globe.
NIU’s connection to the work stems from its strong association with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory—and, in turn, Fermilab’s pivotal role in DUNE. The experiment will send a beam of neutrinos produced at Fermilab straight through earth and rock—no tunnel is necessary—about 800 miles west to four large neutrino detectors inside a cavern built in South Dakota. The detectors there will enable scientists to search for new subatomic phenomena and potentially transform understanding of neutrinos.
Earlier this year, excavation workers finished carving out the future home of the gigantic particle detectors. Located a mile below the earth’s surface, the three colossal caverns are at the core of a new research facility that spans an underground area about the size of eight soccer fields. The goal is to have the first detector operational before the end of 2028.
‘They really need to be studied’
Neutrinos are infinitesimally small, but learning more about them requires massive efforts. To create DUNE’s colossal caverns, close to 800,000 tons of rock were excavated and transported from underground into an expansive former mining area above ground known as the Open Cut. Photo: Stephen Kenny, Sanford Underground Research Facility
For Kurt Francis, a staff scientist at NIU’s Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development (NICADD), his first exposure to neutrinos came as an 11-year-old when they were referenced in a 1977 BBC documentary, “The Key to the Universe.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering at the University of Illinois, he embarked on a career in industry that included computer engineering.
As part of his deepening passion for the sciences, Francis dug into neutrinos as he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees from NIU. He joined NICADD in 2013.
For the past six years, with his tasks being almost exclusively devoted to DUNE, he’s come full circle from that time he was captivated by neutrinos nearly a half-century ago.
“They make up more than half of the universe,” Francis said. “They really need to be studied.
“When you look at the universe all around us, all you see is matter particles,” Francis added. “What happened? If the same rules apply when the universe was created, you should have as many anti-matter particles as there are matter particles. Currently there’s no explanation why there’s this imbalance . . . neutrinos could be part of the answer.”
Potential for discovery
NIU’s Tyler LaBree, who’s pursuing his doctorate in physics, believes DUNE has tremendous capacity for expanding scientific knowledge around mysterious neutrinos.
Arriving at answers holds enormous implications for unlocking the door to other scientific discoveries, technological advances and as-yet unknown possibilities that could lead to the betterment of all mankind.
That lofty potential is part of what attracted Tyler LaBree to DUNE.
LaBree was considering whether to enroll at NIU for his doctorate in physics when he reviewed the research biographies of NIU physics professors. They included Professor Michael Eads and Professor Vishnu Zutshi, and LaBree noticed they both were working on DUNE.
“Neutrinos have in my opinion one of the highest likelihoods to provide lots of learning in the very near future,” LaBree said. “Relative to other particles, we know fairly little about neutrinos. A flagship experiment like DUNE has a huge capacity for expanding our knowledge.”
Solid matter is composed of protons, electrons and neutrons, so those subatomic particles command much more attention—at least among the general populace—than do neutrinos.
“You can’t build a house out of neutrinos,” LaBree explained, “so you don’t learn about them in chemistry class.”
Approaching his third anniversary of working on DUNE, LaBree’s primary duties consist of analyzing data and fine-tuning equipment.
From mid-January to early February, he traveled to Switzerland where he was at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. There he shadowed other scientists and helped conduct preliminary tests on “light trap” detectors that will go inside DUNE. He also assisted on tasks such as altering the brightness of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that were beamed into a detector in a “cold box” cube that is roughly 10 feet tall.
But perhaps the CERN trip’s biggest impact was “the social aspect of this collaboration,” LaBree said.
Most of the DUNE work occurs on computers, so “it’s really great to go physically where people are talking and collaborating and working with their hands,” he added. “I’ve learned how to collaborate and not just do my work in a bubble.”
Being part of a big collaboration
Now a fourth-year Ph.D. graduate student, Will Emark was on a Zoom call in his apartment, finishing up his undergraduate work at Northern Kentucky University, when he first learned of the DUNE project from NIU Physics Professor Jahred Adelman.
“He was explaining research projects and said, `We’re shooting these neutrinos through the earth’s crust. Hopefully we’ll detect neutrinos from supernova, light years and light years away from us.’”
Emark had heard about neutrinos before, but the remark prompted him to dig deeper, and the prospect of being able to work on DUNE was a significant factor in his desire to enroll as a Huskie. He’s been working on various facets of DUNE since 2021 and began having access to DUNE collaboration servers and Fermilab two years ago.
“I’ve learned about being part of a giant collaborative project and have enjoyed making connections with people at Fermilab,” Emark said. “Sometimes, it’s a little overwhelming, but I read as much as I can, and there are many different people I can ask for help, including Dr. Eads and Dr. Zutshi and other students.”
When friends ask what role he’s playing, Emark boils it down as “I am helping detect neutrinos from supernovas. . . my role is to learn what happens to a star when it dies and becomes a supernova.”
Working closely with professors
Meeting roughly twice a week, the students provide their professors and research scientists with updates on their work, ask questions, and seek guidance on what aspects will make a significant contribution toward their Ph.D. work.
In his fourth year as a Ph.D. student, LaBree plans to focus on the identification of rare particles known as tau neutrinos. To this point, only 14 tau neutrinos have been identified, but the DUNE project holds the promise of identifying at least 100 tau neutrinos.
Professor Eads is his adviser, though LaBree receives mentorship from other professors as well.
“They’re all incredibly helpful, and they encourage questions,” LaBree said. “The goal of Ph.D. research is to help you become a professional research scientist—someone who’s self-motivated, knows what needs to be done, and knows how to do and communicate science effectively.”
Beyond his Ph.D., Emark hopes to continue working on DUNE, either through a post-doctorate or research position at Fermilab, or in some other capacity. “Regardless, working on DUNE puts me in a place to rotate to a high energy physics project where the same type of tools, coding software and simulation are used,” Emark said.
Building DUNE modules
Mostly under the supervision of Francis, Emark’s work includes building parts of the DUNE detector, which are sent to CERN to be tested.
“It’s been great to be part of this big research group, where we all help each other and learn from each other’s perspectives,” Emark said. “They’re very clear that my objective here is to learn.”
In the next year or so, the NIU team will be responsible for making 300 to 400 of the photon detection modules that will be part of the much larger web of thousands of such modules (think “light traps”) at the underground Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility in South Dakota.
But first, Francis with help from the likes of Emark and LaBree has overseen the construction of about 20 prototypes of photon detection modules. Those prototypes were tested in liquid argon and produced data that confirmed the design integrity.
“To me, it was a great feeling to know that we had successfully built these—that what we put together worked just fine,” Francis said. “We can use that information to proceed to the next step.”
About NIU
Northern Illinois University is a student-centered, nationally recognized public research university, with expertise that benefits its region and spans the globe in a wide variety of fields, including the sciences, humanities, arts, business, engineering, education, health and law. Through its main campus in DeKalb, Illinois, and education centers for students and working professionals in Chicago, Naperville, Oregon and Rockford, NIU offers more than 100 areas of study while serving a diverse and international student body.
