| Major scientific discovery in Italy lends credibility to DUSEL science |
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| Written by Wendy Pitlick |
| Tuesday, 22 June 2010 |
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LEAD Two weeks before Gov. Mike Rounds visited Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Lead, scientists made a major discovery that will directly impact research in the DUSEL. Currently the deepest underground laboratory in the world for particle and astrophysics, Gran Sasso hosts an experiment that includes a beam of neutrinos that is shot from CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, down into Gran Sasso. The experiment is comparable to the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment that is proposed for the DUSEL, which will feature a beam of neutrinos that will be shot from Fermilab in Chicago to the 4,850-foot level of the former Homestake gold mine. Through the Gran Sasso experiment, scientists have documented the discovery of the Tao Neutrino, which is one of three forms scientists believe the subatomic particle can take. “In the past this has been a theoretical proposal, but now they are actually showing success in finding what they thought was there in terms of one of the neutrinos as a flavor,” Rounds said. The governor also said he believes this discovery will also lend a great deal of credibility to the science that is proposed for the DUSEL, particularly since the LBNE detector is an expanded version of the Gran Sasso experiment, intended to learn even more about neutrinos. |
