The Majorana experiment sits inside a six-layered shield.
The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Collaboration recently released its first physics results at a neutrino conference. What do those results mean for the experiment? For science? For Sanford Lab?
Join Dr. Vincente Guiseppe Thursday, Nov. 9, for “Released from the Depths: What do Majorana’s results look like and what do they mean?,” at the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center, 160 W. Main Street, in Lead, S.D. Guiseppe, co-spokesperson for the collaboration, will take us on a journey deep inside the Majorana experiment, explaining the collaboration’s effort to build an extremely quiet experiment that could tell us more about the origins of our universe.
“These initial results will give us a better understanding of the always-elusive neutrino and how it shaped the universe,” Guiseppe said.
Collaborators with the Majorana Demonstrator built their experiment on the 4850 Level of the Sanford Lab to escape cosmic radiation that constantly bombards the earth. The experiment, which uses enriched germanium crystals to look for a rare form of radioactive decay called neutrinoless double-beta decay, is further protected by a six-layered shield. The collaboration hopes to answer one of the most challenging and important questions in physics: are neutrinos their own antiparticles? If the answer is yes, we could finally learn why matter is more abundant than antimatter and why we exist at all.
Guiseppe, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of South Carolina, oversaw the design and construction of the shield. His experimental nuclear and astroparticle physics research focuses on neutrino physics and ultra-low background experiments conducted deep underground.
Deep Talks begins at 5 p.m. with a social hour; the talk begins at 6 p.m. Free beer from Crow Peak Brewing Company in Spearfish is available for those 21 and older. Deep Talks is sponsored by Sanford Lab, the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center, Crow Peak Brewing Company and First National Bank in Lead. The event is free to the public.
Deep Talks is a lecture series created by the Sanford Underground Research Facility and the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center. The event is held the second Thursday of each month, October through May. Deep Talks is free to the public. Donations to support community education are welcome.
Sanford Lab is operated by the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA) with funding from the Department of Energy. Our mission is to advance compelling underground, multidisciplinary research in a safe work environment and to inspire and educate through science, technology, and engineering. Visit us at www.SanfordLab.org.
Visit the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center at http://sanfordlabhomestake.com