Particle physics factory builds modules to understand mass, matter Answers to physicists' questions about the universe may be found by detectors now under construction at Argonne's particle physics factory. The sensitive instruments detect energy from collisions in particle physics experiments and store the data in a computer for physicists to analyze. The detectors are essentially digital cameras made of plastic treated to scintillate, emit light, when exposed to radiation. Optical fibers extract the light and transmit it to electronics that convert it to electric signals. To help construct these modules, Argonne technicians have devised an automated glue machine and a table that calibrates modules so that researchers can later determine the detected particle's energy.
Neutrinos are fundamental particle building blocks of matter.
However, they have been notoriously difficult to study because they rarely interact with ordinary matter. Until recently, scientists believed that all neutrino masses are too small to measure directly and may well be zero. The oscillation phenomenon, supported by American and Japanese research in the past two years, allows experiments to probe much smaller masses than can be measured directly. They will be aimed at the 5,400-ton neutrino detector built deep in a historic iron mine turned Argonne physics laboratory in Minnesota. To a neutrino, the intervening 450 miles of solid rock are as transparent as window glass is to light.