UA Professor Hopes to Better Understand Fate of Universe Through Research at National Lab

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A University of Alabama professor is among the collaborating scientists who have announced that a new detector at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has observed its first neutrino events.

Dr. Ion Stancu, assistant professor of physics, is among the select group of scientists who have partnered in the Booster Neutrino Experiment, known as BooNE, in Batavia, Ill. The BooNE scientists have identified neutrinos that created ring-shaped flashes of light inside a 250,000-gallon detector filled with mineral oil.

Neutrinos, which mean “little neutral ones,” have considerable influence on the universe, but little mass and no electric charge. There are three types of neutrinos: the electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino. If neutrinos have mass, they can change from one type into another — from a muon neutrino into an electron neutrino and back. This change is called neutrino oscillation. If researchers are able to document such an oscillation, they will prove, definitively, that neutrinos have mass.

The major goal of the MiniBooNE experiment, the first phase of the BooNE project, is either to confirm or refute startling experimental results reported by a group of scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 1996, the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) collaboration stunned the particle physics community when it reported a few incidences in which the antiparticle of a neutrino had presumably transformed into a different type of antineutrino.

“Neutrinos could be very important,” said Stancu. “We don’t see 90 percent of the matter in the universe. If there is a mass to neutrinos, then the discovery could contribute to our understanding of the universe’s fate. It is quite rewarding research.”

Stancu and his research team have developed the software that will analyze and identify each neutrino event in the detector. “This software is the key in extracting any possible electron neutrino event from the expected one million muon neutrino interactions in the detector,” he said.

During the next two years, the BooNE collaboration will collect and analyze approximately one million particle events to study the quantum behavior of neutrinos. Although these ghost-like particles are among the most abundant particles in the entire universe, little is known about their role in nature.

“It is an exciting time for neutrino physics,” said Raymond Orbach, director of the Department of Energy Office of Science. “In the past few years experiments around the world have made extraordinary neutrino observations, shattering the long-standing view that neutrinos have no mass. The MiniBooNE experiment has the potential for advancing the revolution of our understanding of the building blocks of matter.”

The MiniBooNE experiment, under construction from October 1999 to May 2002, relies on an intense beam of muon neutrinos created by the Booster accelerator at Fermilab. About 1,500 feet from its production point, the neutrino beam traverses a 40-foot-diameter tank filled with ultra clean mineral oil. The tank’s interior is lined with 1,520 light-sensitive devices, called photomultiplier tubes that record tiny flashes of light produced by neutrinos colliding with carbon nuclei inside the oil.

“We will operate the experiment 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Bill Louis, a Los Alamos scientists and co-spokesperson of the BooNE collaboration “We will be looking for oscillations of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos. If nature behaves as LSND suggests, our detector will collect about one thousand electron neutrino events over the next two years. If not, we won’t see any electron neutrinos. Either way, we’ll get a definite answer.”

The BooNE collaboration comprises 66 scientists from 13 institutions across the United States. The $19 million MiniBooNE experiment has received funding both from DOE’s Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.

“In addition to the importance of the science, MiniBooNE is an example of a successful partnership among federal agencies, universities and national laboratories,” said Marvin Goldberg of the National Science Foundation. “The project has also set new standards for education and public outreach in the field of high-energy physics. The small scale of the project allows undergraduate and graduate students to participate fully in all of the experimental components.”

Fermilab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, operated under contract by Universities Research Association Inc.

Stancu teaches and conducts research in the department of physics and astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences at UA. The College of Arts and Sciences is UA’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state, with approximately 5,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students. The College has received national recognition for academic excellence, and A&S students have been selected for many of the nation’s top academic honors, including 15 Rhodes Scholarships, 13 Goldwater Scholarships, seven Truman Scholarships and 11 memberships on USA Today‘s Academic All-American teams.

High-resolution photos are available at www.fnal.gov/pub/miniboone. Questions about the LSND experiment should be directed to Jim Danneskiold, Los Alamos public affairs office, 505/667-1640 or -7000, slinger@lanl.gov.