Fermilab webinar to address questions on Vermilion neutrino detector

REGIONAL— With the planned deployment of an underwater neutrino detector in Lake Vermilion next week, Fermilab officials will be hosting a webinar to explain the project and answer questions from the public. The webinar is set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, and a link can be found at https://tinyurl.com/9zk7pc68.
As previously reported in the Timberjay, the installation of the detector is an initiative of the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, a research and development branch of the Defense Department, and the agency has been working closely with Fermilab for at least the past two years to move the project forward.
The experiment will entail ten separate cylindrical modules, called Muon Underwater Modules, or MUMs, and each MUM will be enclosed within its own metal framework that will measure 22-1/2 feet long, and approximately 10 feet in height and width. Two flat-panel detectors will be placed within each MUM.
The MUMs will be buoyant, so they are suspended approximately one meter off the bottom, using large concrete anchors to hold them in place. The water depth at the deployment site is approximately 35 feet, so the top of the MUMs will be approximately 22 feet below the water surface.
The MUMs will be deployed in Big Bay, just off the north side of Ely Island. Researchers have identified a cabin site on the north side of Ely Island, which will serve as the base of operations for the electronics associated with the detector and they have built a shed designed to house most of that gear, which still needs to be hauled to the island site.
The proposal has generated questions from residents in the vicinity of the planned deployment site, including concerns about energy use, noise, and impacts to water quality from the deployment and removal of the concrete anchors. However, Fermilab spokesperson Tracy Marc said the MUMs themselves will generate no noise. She said energy usage would be similar to a small house, mostly to operate several personal computers and a window air conditioner to keep the computer equipment cool. That’s unlikely to be needed given that the experiment is expected to operate only a few months, from this November into February of 2027.

Why Lake Vermilion?
The researchers identified Lake Vermilion as the best location for their research to give the experiment the best sensitivity to the neutrinos Neutrino Main Injector, or NuMI, beam at Fermilab, located outside Chicago. Fermilab built the beam 25 years ago for neutrino oscillation experiments using a massive underground detector located at the 27th level of the Soudan Mine and and a separate, ground level detector located at Ash River in far northern St. Louis County.
Neutrinos are neutral subatomic particles that have nearly zero mass. They can pass through normal matter without interacting because, at the atomic level, matter is mostly empty space. This ability to pass through matter is why neutrinos are often referred to as “ghost particles.” They travel through the universe at close to the speed of light and can only be detected with current technology in those rare instances when they make contact with a much more massive atomic particle, such as a proton, possibly in a water molecule located near the detector. When that happens, they emit varying types of energy, which researchers study to better understand their properties.