The detector is quite innovative and I think we will learn a whole lot more about neutrinos in the next 3 years.
quote:In a paper published on November 24, 2021, in the journal Physical Review D, the researchers describe how they observed six neutrino interactions during a pilot run of a compact emulsion detector installed at the LHC in 2018.
“Prior to this project, no sign of neutrinos has ever been seen at a particle collider,” said co-author Jonathan Feng, UCI Distinguished Professor of physics & astronomy and co-leader of the FASER Collaboration. “This significant breakthrough is a step toward developing a deeper understanding of these elusive particles and the role they play in the universe.”
quote:The pilot instrument was made up of lead and tungsten plates alternated with layers of emulsion. During particle collisions at the LHC, some of the neutrinos produced smash into nuclei in the dense metals, creating particles that travel through the emulsion layers and create marks that are visible following processing. These etchings provide clues about the energies of the particles, their flavors – tau, muon or electron – and whether they’re neutrinos or antineutrinos.
quote:What makes FASERnu unique, he said, is that while other experiments have been able to distinguish between one or two kinds of neutrinos, it will be able to observe all three flavors plus their antineutrino counterparts. Casper said that there have only been about 10 observations of tau neutrinos in all of human history but that he expects his team will be able to double or triple that number over the next three years.
quote:“Given the power of our new detector and its prime location at CERN, we expect to be able to record more than 10,000 neutrino interactions in the next run of the LHC, beginning in 2022,” said co-author David Casper, FASER project co-leader and associate professor of physics & astronomy at UCI. “We will detect the highest-energy neutrinos that have ever been produced from a human-made source.”
Reference: “First neutrino interaction candidates at the LHC” by Henso Abreu et al. (FASER Collaboration), 24 November 2021, Physical Review D. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.L091101
I wonder if neutrinos will turn out to help us understand Dark Energy and Dark Matter. What would the Universe look like if we could figure out how to do neutrino astronomy?
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
What would the Universe look like if we could figure out how to do neutrino astronomy?
We’re about to find out cuz we’re doing it now. IceCube has been operational for years and is part of the supernova alert program. There is a small handful of neutrino telescopes already online and another set of smaller neutrino observatories tucked here and there over the world.
Unfortunately, one capture in every 100 trillion (+- another 100 trillion) is poor pickins. These detectors need to be big because neutrinos aren't there. Takes a lot of detector to find a nothing, but we do it, we find 'em.
I’ve been following this for forever because neutrinos are just plain weird. They hardly exist at all, make up more of matter in the universe than do electrons by a gazillion orders of magnitude, and they change ID between three different types every split second or so while in flight. These things change shape (quantum energy levels) in flight. Say what!? How?
Recently the search for a 4th flavor of neutrino (sterile neutrinos) was called off on account of because no one can find one. That null result was both comforting and disappointing. The standard model is still intact. Damn it. But we know the standard model, regardless of how the thing just seemed to flow together so pretty, cannot be the whole of the story. We haven’t yet pushed the model hard enough to break it and neutrinos were supposed to do just that.
Neutrinos are not suppose to be just the latest category of particle to fall so neatly into the model on its own, they are supposed to break it. The shapeshifting is a great start but this three flavors stuff just falls in too neatly with the rest of the model.
Brookhaven, FermiLab and their DUNE project (minus any spicy worms) will be THE platform for the detailed study of everything a shapeshifting neutrino does in flight. How can it change quantum state in flight? That's not allowed. 'Cept now it is since we see it happening.
"Hey, neutrino, you can't do that. Quantum particles don't do that. No one does that. Stop it."
"Stuff it, Ape!"
"You piss me off, ghost puff. I'm gonna nail your flashy ass down to my table!"
This result from CERN gives us a new venue and set of detectors that appear to be more sensitive than 40,000 tons of liquid argon buried deep below South Dakota. But the big telescopes with huge pools do give us clear and immediate direction vectors to each event which is way cool for astronomy.
And the LHC's detectors are intended to help balance the energy math from its detected collisions in the main ring, not for space stuff.
As for your other questions on the dark things, we will find out soon. I wouldn't think our neutrino detectors could help with dark energy. The leading models aren't conducive to a connection. But dark matter is a definite issue that could very well be impacted by how neutrinos do their thing.
But then neutrinos disappointed me before by being only a trinity. Wouldn't surprise me if neutrinos took us right to the edge of understanding dark matter then said, "Fuck you. Go look elsewhere."
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
quote:How did supermassive black holes form? What is dark matter? In an alternative model for how the Universe came to be, as compared to the ‘textbook’ history of the Universe, a team of astronomers propose that both of these cosmic mysteries could be explained by so-called ‘primordial black holes’.
quote:“Black holes of different sizes are still a mystery. We don’t understand how supermassive black holes could have grown so huge in the relatively short time available since the Universe existed,” explains Günther Hasinger.
At the other end of the scale, there might also be very small black holes, as suggested by observations from ESA’s Gaia, for example. If they exist, they are too small to have formed from dying stars.
quote:If most of the black holes formed immediately after the Big Bang, they could have started merging in the early Universe, forming more and more massive black holes over time. ESA’s future gravitational wave space observatory, LISA, might pick up the signals of those mergers if primordial black holes exist. Small black holes might simply be the primordial black holes that have not merged into larger ones yet.
According to this model, the Universe would be filled with black holes all over. Stars would start to form around these clumps of ‘dark matter’, creating solar systems and galaxies over billions of years. If the first stars indeed formed around primordial black holes, they would exist earlier in the Universe than is expected by the ‘standard’ model.
Reference: “Exploring the high-redshift PBH-ΛCDM Universe: early black hole seeding, the first stars and cosmic radiation backgrounds” by N. Cappelluti, G. Hasinger and P. Natarajan, Accepted, The Astrophysical Journal. arXiv:2109.08701
Several upcoming space based observatories, including the Webb Space Telescope launching in a few days will be able to test predictions of this new hypothesis. Exciting times in physics coming up, I hope I get to see it.
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
James Webb Space Telescope is in orbit after a flawless launch.
It separated from the Ariane 5 rocket, unfolded its solar panels and is now on internal power. Over the next four weeks the controllers will slowly unfold the telescope into its final configuration as it travels out to the L2 point about 1.5 million km from Earth. Then comes mirror tests and verification, aiming and target control and internal checks which are scheduled to last up to 6 months. That puts first light (first science observations) in the june/july timeframe.
The most dangerous part of the deployment is over, successfully. Now comes the really hairy engineering part. During the unfolding and tests there are over 340 single points of failure that still need to be passed.
I can’t hold my breath for 6 months solid so I’ll do it in stages while I nibble my fingernails to the quick.
During the unfolding and tests there are over 340 single points of failure that still need to be passed.
Watching the success of recent Mars rover missions makes me very optimistic, but I remember the terrible disappointment when the first light of Hubble showed terribly blurred images and we all realized something was wrong.
The successes of NASA are just about the only thing that gives me hope for humanity's future.
Merry Christmas!
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
The last 23 years of my career as a software engineer I worked at Odetics and then in their Telecom/Zyfer division which they sold off to Frequency Electronics Inc (FEI). Odetics' robot, Odex (see video below), was just a side project. After they made their fortune in data recorders for satellites and space craft, they started to branch out into other fields, including robotics with their Advanced Intelligent Machines Division (which created Odex). I joined the company in 1995 for their Solid-State Recorder (SSR) projects which replaced their mechanical data recorder with solid state technology (very special ICs, some of which were built on sapphire substrates instead of silicon in order to make them more resistant to the radiation out in deep space). As it turned out, while we could reign supreme with mechanical data recorders (due to some very neat tricks by our mechanical engineers that I never learned about), we could not compete in the solid-state recorder market (especially when competitors were gaming the system, but that's another story) ... and the market was looking to solid-state instead of mechanical which took our salesmen completely by surprise, which it shouldn't have.
One of our last big mechanical data recorder projects was the Galileo probe to Jupiter. Despite the complaints, we really pulled their cookies out of the fire.
After the launch, Galileo's high-gain antenna failed to deploy, leaving its low-gain antenna as the only communications channel with the spacecraft. That meant that all that data had to be transmitted at a far lower data rate. In order to support that work-around, our recorder had to do things that it had never been designed to do, such as repeatedly stopping and backing up over and over again. And despite all that, our data recorder came through and returned the data that it had recorded. It had problems towards the end from being made to do things it had never been designed for, but it still succeeded.
Funny story. Our break room at Odetics had TVs which would carry the NASA Channel at appropriate times, since much of the company's business was intricately tied in with NASA. As I seem to recall, during the deployment of Galileo's atmospheric probe some kind of parachute was used. In the press conference around that event, a correspondent from a magazine known far more for fashion news than tech asked the question: "What color is that parachute?" The NASA spokesman was literally speechless. I shit thee not, that was literally the question! I swear to God and three other white men! (old Redd Foxx joke that I've been dying to use for nearly half a century).
BTW, one of the most popular YEC claims revolves around the fact that the earth's rotation is slowing down. Yes, the earth's rotation is slowing down, but nowhere near at the rate that creationists propose. Their rates are hundreds of times too great because they do not understand leap seconds.
We would see Odex everyday in a display case on our way to the cafeteria, but I saw it in action one day when a group of Japanese students visited so they pulled Odex out to play.
In 1992 there was a PBS miniseries, The Machine That Changed the World about the computer. Fascinating. I have the entire series on VHS; I can only hope that I will have a VHS machine handy to play it to my grandsons a decade or more in the future (subject of various works worrying about all our stored data requiring obsolete technology to read it). In their episode on robotics, they pointed out how very problematic a two-legged robot is so they settled on at least six legs, such that three legs would be holding the robot up while the other three were moving to their new positions. Odex did that same thing but with four legs holding the robot in place while the other four were positioning themselves to the new location.
Everything is functioning well so far in activating this incredible product of human ingenuity. There are some amazing robotics on the JWST.
They probably planned for this, but why couldn't they have designed-in ports so advanced robotic spacecraft in the future could service it, add fuel, etc.?
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
but why couldn't they have designed-in ports so advanced robotic spacecraft in the future could service it, add fuel, etc.?
Oh I remember there was a lot of heated discussion on this point in the online discussions of JWST for years early on. But the telescope functional life from wear and tear was not deemed long enough to rely on future technology able to service the scope before it irreparably shot craps.
If the scope was launched in 2007 as planned it would be near 15 years into its 10 year lifespan and NASA was right, we do not have the technology to service the thing.
Still, I think that was short sighted especially given the decade of delay in getting the thing up there.
But NASA couldn't design a separate unique docking port for JWST but would have to use the universal docking port of international standards and that design caused a lot of problems with the origami structure and cost too much to add.
NASA said too much hassle.
So, like typical Americans, when the ashtray gets full we'll junk the car. OK, that is old timer talk but you get the jist.
Webb will be operated at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), located approximately 1 million miles (1.5 million km) away from the Earth, and will therefore be beyond the reach of any manned vehicle currently being planned for the next decade.
Hubble is in low-Earth orbit, located approximately 375 miles (600 km) away from the Earth, and is therefore readily accessible for servicing. In the early days of the Webb project, studies were conducted to evaluate the benefits, practicality and cost of servicing Webb either by human space flight, by robotic missions, or by some combination such as retrieval to low-Earth orbit. Those studies concluded that the potential benefits of servicing do not offset the increases in mission complexity, mass and cost that would be required to make Webb serviceable, or to conduct the servicing mission itself. Hubble is an exception and not the rule. No other satellites but Hubble are serviceable currently.
One place I used to work, one of the young women bought a new car.. Somebody asked, "What color is it?"
She answered, "Blue."
Somebody commented, "I hear those are good."
Similarly, in the US military's messing facilities they serve a "fruit juice" beverage which is flavored powder dissolved in water, kind of like Kool-Aid. I encountered it both in the Air Force and the Navy, where it's called "bug juice."
From the NavTermFAQ *:
quote:Bug juice - A substance similar in appearance to Kool-Aid which is served as a beverage aboard USN ships. Its color has no bearing on its flavor. Largely composed of ascorbic acid. Used extensively as an all-purpose cleaner/stripper for bulkheads, decks, brass fire nozzles, and pipes.
Bug juice comes in a variety of "flavors" which are suggested by color: red, green, yellow, blue, and I forget what else. The running joke is:
Q: "What's your favorite flavor of bug juice?" A: "Red."
Personal war story, I shit thee not. As we were being adjusted to military life in USAF basic military training which seemed to be symbolized by the color green, the standard joke is that we would know that we had been arrived at the state of being fully military when we started to defecate green -- I think that's an old Army meme.
Halfway through basic I contracted measles and spent a few days in the Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) before being transferred to the base hospital. In the ICF, they maintained bug juice dispensers from which we were to drink copiously to fight the fever. They tried to prevent monotony by rotating flavors each day. The first day I drank blue, the second day I drank yellow, and the third day I defecated green. I had arrived!
* FOOTNOTE:
NavTermFAQ stands for "Naval Terminology FAQ" which is officially named "Naval Slang, Jargon and Terminology FAQ" -- NavTermFAQ.txt is a far more convenient filename to store it under. While primary US Navy, it also includes British naval slang (eg, Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Marines, Royal New Zealand Navy, and militaries of the former British Empire).
It is split into two parts which are linked to through the Haze Gray & Underway's FAQ page. That page contains links to a shipload of military FAQs. Their naming conventions indicate to me that this is a collection of resources from Internet newsgroups, which were the Internet's first discussion forums.
Edited by dwise1, : Provided context by qs'ing ringo
Edited by dwise1, : Minor typo: "where", not "which"
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
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