Brazilian searches for 'ghost particles' 1.5 km deep in the Earth
Neutrinos are abundant in the Universe and are everywhere, just as mysterious as they are. Brazilian researcher Luis Prais, 34, works in a 'hole' more than one and a half thousand meters deep hunting for so-called 'ghost particles'.
Right now, billions of neutrinos, coming from the Sun, are crossing our body every second.
"Neutrinos are produced by the most varied sources, such as in the Sun, in nuclear reactors, in the Earth's atmosphere, and also in particle accelerators like the ones we use in our research. Neutrinos are even available in supermarkets, as even bananas emit a certain amount of them, more or less 3 million per day", explains Luiz Prais, post-doctor in physics and researcher.
Images of the access tunnel to the detectors
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The research is carried out at Dune, an underground laboratory in the United States, which cost more than R$20 billion. In total, more than 1,500 collaborators from 38 countries take part in different research.
The experiment takes place at great depths to ensure that most other particles are blocked by rocks, in the same way that a lead wall protects against radiation. Neutrinos can overcome barriers, so in the laboratory below sea level, particles can be studied more accurately.
Underground location is more than 1.5 km deep
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For the Brazilian scientist, with isolation it will be possible to identify the interaction between the neutrino and its antimatter, the so-called antineutrino. "If ongoing studies prove a certain distinction in behavior between these two particles, this leads us to a path that could help explain why the Universe is dominated by matter, and not antimatter, revealing a little more of what may have happened moments after the Big Bang", concludes Prais.
Dark matter
The 'ghost particles' can study even more things: "The experiment has a fantastic range of possibilities to investigate, including the study of supernovae (which is the explosion of a star in its final stage of existence), the search for so-called dark matter, which has not yet been detected, and much more. There will be good years of adventure ahead", celebrates the Brazilian researcher
To work with this type of research, you need a degree in Physics. "I started the journey as an undergraduate student in Physics, at Unesp, also spending a period in Portugal, at the University of Coimbra, through a scholarship. Then, during my master's degree at the Federal University of Goiás, I became deeply involved in the NOvA experiment, which also studies neutrinos and has been in operation for over 10 years", says Prais.
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Dune
The difficult-to-access location is based at Fermilab, a laboratory responsible for energy research linked to the United States Department of Energy, in the state of Illinois. The acronym for Dune, loosely translated as Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.
Each particle detector is the size of a commercial airliner. If we weigh all the detectors on site, the total mass will be 70,000 tons, the equivalent of ten Eiffel Towers. There, the first neutrinos produced by the Sun were identified in the 1960s.
"As the structure in the area already existed, we took the opportunity to expand and excavate the new caves where the new detectors are being built," says the physicist.
Source: CNN