IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – University of Iowa students are hand-building custom components for what researchers describe as “one of the most high-profile particle physics experiments of this century.”
The students are assembling 700 electrical shielding boxes and 350 circuit boards for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, known as DUNE.
Students test equipment for extreme conditions
Nikolas Vinovich is one of the undergrads working on the project. His job is making sure the circuit boards can survive conditions of negative 300 degrees.
“Very unique opportunity as an undergrad to be even anywhere near this stuff let alone be trusted to put together this test stand myself,” Vinovich said.
Professor Jane Nachtman oversees the students as they build the components in a sterile room at the University of Iowa.
“This can tell us things about the differences between matter and anti-matter which can help us understand the universe and why the universe is as it is,” Nachtman said.
Components will ship to underground facility
By Thanksgiving, the students’ part of the project will be done. The components will then ship out for the next phase, eventually landing a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.
“It will take decades to get the answers we need because neutrinos so rarely interact,” Nachtman said.
Physicists from the University of Iowa are working with researchers from around the world to complete the components for DUNE. When the project is ready, an intense neutrino beam will be shot underground from a facility in Illinois to the facility in South Dakota.
The experiment is part of the search for answers on whether neutrinos are the reason the universe is made of matter.
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