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    Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)

    Also known as DUNE, LBNF/DUNE, Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility

    DUNE is an international experiment that will send a neutrino beam 1,300 km from Fermilab in Illinois to giant liquid-argon detectors a mile underground in South Dakota, to study why the universe is made of matter.[1][2] In May 2026 installation of the far-detector structures began, and Fermilab aims to deliver the first neutrino beam by 2031.[3][4]

    Editor reviewedUpdated Particle physics and cosmologyPhysicsScience
    Key facts

    What it is

    The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) has two detectors on one neutrino beam. The near detector is at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. The far detector is 1,300 km downstream at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota.[1] About 1,500 scientists from around the world collaborate on it.[5] Fermilab describes DUNE as the largest scientific project supported by the DOE Office of Science. It will send the world’s most intense neutrino beam about 800 miles through the Earth to the far detector.[6]

    Why neutrinos

    Neutrinos change type as they travel, which proves they have mass, something the Standard Model originally assumed they lacked.[7] DUNE aims to measure differences between neutrinos and antineutrinos that could help explain why the universe contains matter, to look for physics beyond the Standard Model, and to catch neutrinos from supernovae.[2] Explaining the matter-antimatter imbalance requires CP violation, which LHCb has now seen in baryons; DUNE will look for related differences in neutrinos.[8][9]

    Scale and construction

    Each of the first two far-detector cryostats measures 216 by 62 by 60 feet and will hold 17,000 tons of liquid argon.[10] On 7 May 2026 Fermilab and SURF marked the start of moving 10 million pounds of steel beams a mile underground to build the detector structures.[3] CERN supplied that steel and expertise, its first infrastructure investment for an experiment outside Europe.[11] The detectors will record neutrino interactions in liquid argon cooled to about minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit.[6] The CERN-supplied cryostat steel was due to be moved underground for installation in summer 2026. The partnership runs both ways: US national laboratories are building superconducting magnets for CERN’s High-Luminosity LHC.[12] Fermilab’s priority is to deliver the first neutrino beam to DUNE by 2031.[4]

    Policy backing

    The 2023 US P5 report reaffirmed DUNE’s science and recommended its early implementation.[13]

    Other neutrino experiments

    DUNE joins a busy field. China’s JUNO, a 20-kiloton detector 52.5 km from nuclear reactors, published its first results in November 2025. Using 59 days of data, it measured two oscillation parameters 1.6 times more precisely than all earlier experiments combined.[14] Its main goal is to determine the neutrino mass ordering.[15] The KATRIN experiment measures neutrino mass directly from tritium decay and set an upper limit of 0.45 electronvolts in 2025.[16][17] Cosmology gives a tighter but model-dependent bound. DESI’s 2025 galaxy-map data limit the sum of the three neutrino masses to below 0.064 eV under the standard cosmological model, or 0.16 eV if dark energy evolves.[18]

    Neutrinos from space

    Neutrino physics got its own Nobel Prize in 2026. Francis Halzen won it for his role in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from far beyond the Solar System.[19] IceCube uses more than 5,000 light sensors spread through a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice to catch the rare flashes these neutrinos make. It was finished in 2011, more than two decades after Halzen first proposed the idea in 1988.[20] Where IceCube catches neutrinos from cosmic accelerators, DUNE will study neutrinos from a controlled beam.[6]

    Questions readers ask

    What will DUNE measure?

    Differences between neutrinos and antineutrinos that could help explain why the universe contains matter, new physics beyond the Standard Model, and neutrinos from supernovae.[2]

    When will DUNE start?

    Fermilab's priority is to deliver the first neutrino beam to DUNE by 2031. Underground detector installation began in May 2026.[4][3]

    Where is the far detector?

    The far detector sits nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, 1,300 km from Fermilab.[3][1]

    Sources

    Each numbered claim is a statement we checked against the sources listed with it. Status shows how well established it is.

    1. [1]

      DUNE sends a neutrino beam from Fermilab in Illinois to a far detector 1,300 km away at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, with a near detector at Fermilab. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    2. [2]

      DUNE's main goals are to study differences between neutrinos and antineutrinos that could explain why the universe contains matter, to search for physics beyond the Standard Model, and to detect neutrinos from supernovae. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    3. [3]

      On 7 May 2026 Fermilab and SURF marked the start of moving 10 million pounds of steel beams a mile underground to build the structures of DUNE's far detectors. confirmedas of 2026-05-07

    4. [4]

      Fermilab's priority is to deliver the first neutrino beam to DUNE by 2031. confirmedas of 2026-05-07

    5. [5]

      DUNE has about 1,500 scientific collaborators from around the world. confirmedas of 2026-05-07

    6. [6]

      Fermilab describes DUNE as the largest scientific project supported by the DOE Office of Science; it will send the world's most intense neutrino beam 800 miles to SURF, where cryostats will cool liquid argon to about minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit. confirmedas of 2026-05-07

    7. [7]

      Neutrinos change flavour (electron, muon, tau) as they travel, which proves they have mass; the Standard Model originally assumed neutrinos were massless. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    8. [8]

      CP violation is needed to explain why today's universe contains matter with essentially no leftover antimatter. confirmedas of 2025-03-25

    9. [9]

      In March 2025 LHCb reported the first observation of matter-antimatter (CP) violation in baryon decays, a 2.45% asymmetry in Lambda-b baryon decays with 5.2 standard deviations significance, using LHC Run 1 and 2 data. confirmedas of 2025-03-25

    10. [10]

      Each of DUNE's first two far-detector cryostats measures 216 by 62 by 60 feet and will hold 17,000 tons of liquid argon. confirmedas of 2026-05-07

    11. [11]

      CERN supplied the steel and expertise for DUNE's far-detector cryostats, its first infrastructure investment for an experiment outside Europe. confirmedas of 2026-05-07

    12. [12]

      CERN's Director-General said CERN is providing DUNE's two cryostats, while US national laboratories supply superconducting magnets for the High-Luminosity LHC; the CERN steel was scheduled to be moved underground in summer 2026. confirmedas of 2026-05-07

    13. [13]

      The December 2023 US P5 report recommended early implementation of DUNE, a significant US in-kind contribution to an offshore Higgs factory, and supported hosting a muon collider at Fermilab. confirmedas of 2023-12-08

    14. [14]

      China's JUNO, a 20-kiloton liquid-scintillator detector 52.5 km from nuclear reactors, measured two neutrino oscillation parameters 1.6 times more precisely than all previous experiments combined, using 59.1 days of data after completion in August 2025. confirmedas of 2025-11-19

    15. [15]

      JUNO's primary goal is to determine the neutrino mass ordering with a larger dataset. confirmedas of 2025-11-19

    16. [16]

      KATRIN infers neutrino mass from tritium beta decay, because a neutrino mass slightly lowers the maximum energy the emitted electron can carry. confirmedas of 2025-04-16

    17. [17]

      In April 2025 the KATRIN experiment reported in Science that the neutrino mass is below 0.45 electronvolts (90% confidence), half the previous limit, using 259 days of data from 2019 to 2021 and more than 36 million electrons. confirmedas of 2025-04-16

    18. [18]

      DESI 2025 data set a 95% upper limit on the sum of neutrino masses of 0.064 eV assuming Lambda-CDM, loosening to 0.16 eV in an evolving-dark-energy model. confirmedas of 2025-03-19

    19. [19]

      The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics, announced on 6 October 2026, went to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. confirmedas of 2026-10-06

    20. [20]

      IceCube, finished in 2011, uses more than 5,000 light sensors spread through a cubic kilometre of ice about two kilometres below the South Pole surface to catch the flashes of light from rare neutrino collisions; Halzen first proposed the idea in 1988. confirmedas of 2026-10-06

    Revision history (2)
    1. Page created.
    2. Added DUNE's scale (800-mile beam, liquid argon), the CERN-US magnet exchange, DESI's cosmological neutrino-mass bound and the 2026 Nobel Prize for IceCube.

    Created Oct 10, 2026. Last reviewed by an editor on Oct 10, 2026. Next scheduled review: Jan 10, 2027.

    Cite this page

    "Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)." ContentLora, updated Oct 10, 2026. https://contentlora.com/wiki/dune-neutrino-experiment

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