What are the implications of neutrino detection at the LHC?

[pinball1970]

TL;DR Summary

The FASER collaboration is a large research effort established with the goal of observing light and weakly interacting particles. FASER was the first research group to observe neutrinos at the LHC, using the FASER detector, which is positioned over 400m away from the renowned ATLAS experiment, in a separate tunnel.

Article below

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-neutrinos-cern-large-hadron-collider.amp

Publication here. https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.031801

 

[jedishrfu]

Cool, I always thought only those deep lab apparatus could measure them since they were so elusive:

https://sanfordlab.org/experiment/deep-underground-neutrino-experiment

or the ICE Cube experiments:

https://masterclass.icecube.wisc.edu/en/node/129

https://masterclass.icecube.wisc.edu/en/learn/detecting-neutrinos

 

[pinball1970]

Cool, I always thought only those deep lab apparatus could measure them since they were so elusive:

https://sanfordlab.org/experiment/deep-underground-neutrino-experiment

or the ICE Cube experiments:

https://masterclass.icecube.wisc.edu/en/node/129

https://masterclass.icecube.wisc.edu/en/learn/detecting-neutrinos

Yes I thought the same.

What I found interesting was the neutrino detections prior to SN1987
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A (whilst looking for Webb observations)

Detectors in Russia, France and Japan picked them up a few hours before the light from the super nova reached us!

"This was the first time neutrinos known to be emitted from a supernova had been observed directly, which marked the beginning of neutrino astronomy. The observations were consistent with theoretical supernova models in which 99% of the energy of the collapse is radiated away in the form of neutrinos."

 

[jtbell]

I always thought only those deep lab apparatus could measure them since they were so elusive:

High-energy accelerator-based neutrino beams with nearby detectors have been a thing since the 1960s.

Accelerator neutrinos (Fermilab)

I did my PhD dissertation with a group that used the 15-foot bubble chamber in Fermilab's neutrino beam. Here's an example of the papers that the group produced.

Experimental study of hadrons produced in high-energy charged-current neutrino-proton interactions (Phys Rev D, January 1979)

Yes, I'm shown as the first author, even though I was a new-ish graduate student who had contributed only slightly to the analysis via some FORTRAN code. The policy was to list everybody in the collaboration, first by institution, then alphabetically. Click on the "Authors and Affiliations" field to see everybody.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I did my PhD dissertation with a group that used the 15-foot bubble chamber in Fermilab's neutrino beam.

With a young Bill Louis. And a young Peter Berge. And possibly a young John Mariner.

 

[pinball1970]

I did my PhD dissertation with a group that used the 15-foot bubble chamber in Fermilab's neutrino beam. Here's an example of the papers that the group produced.

I feel a bit foolish now ;)
I am interested in learning bits and pieces of the science as it crops up but only on a superficial level.

One takes for granted the calibre of the guys on here but it is nice to be reminded sometimes!

 

[jtbell]

a young Bill Louis

He finished his PhD right about when I joined the group. He showed me how to run a bubble-chamber film scanning machine. I spent a few weeks scanning film so I could see where the data was coming from and what the interactions we were studying looked like. He also introduced me to the departmental "minicomputer" (a DEC PDP-10 which was transitioning from punched cards to video terminals for writing programs) and gave me my first couple of programming assignments.

One takes for granted the calibre of the guys on here

Well, I wasn't anywhere near Bill's calibre. He ended up at Los Alamos, doing high-profile neutrino experiments.

https://physics.aps.org/authors/william_c_louis

Now I see that clicking on my name in the author list in the abstract I posted above, gives a list not only of "my" papers, but also those of other people named J. Bell, J. A. Bell, et al. For the record, I never did research on Langmuir-Blodgett films, random binary alloys, etc. I also see a paper about virtual pions by J. S. Bell, who is more famous for a certain theorem.

 

[vanhees71]

You mean the anomaly, right? SCNR, just kidding.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Why is FASER interesting?

Was there any doubt that neutrinos were produced at the LHC (or the Tevatron, RHIC or SppS) No. The indirect evidence was overwhelming. (And in fact, even "direct" detection is a little bit indirect)

No, the real reason is that the LHC is reaching the sensitivity for some searches that neutrino interactions are starting to be a background. Having a measurement to constrain, even partially, how large this background is allows these searches to move forward.