South Dakota mine prepares for giant neutrino detector assembly

Assembly of four enormous detectors for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, known as Dune, is due to begin on Monday in South Dakota, the Guardian reports. The equipment will sit a mile beneath Lead in the former Homestake gold mine. Detector assembly is expected to take nearly three years, followed by another year to fill the instruments with liquid argon.

Dune will observe neutrinos arriving from space and from Fermilab near Chicago, which will send a beam through 800 miles of Earth. Researchers plan to investigate the particles’ relative masses and compare neutrinos with antineutrinos, seeking clues to the universe’s matter–antimatter imbalance. The UK, the project’s largest international partner, is supplying detector components, computing and equipment for generating the beam.

Homestake has hosted neutrino research since the 1960s, when Ray Davis built a detector there to record particles from the sun. After the mine closed in 2001, it became the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Dune extends that scientific role, with construction involving skilled local workers and international research partners.