The prototype replaces traditional wire-based readout planes with commercially made printed circuit boards. This makes the detector easier to build and records more neutrino interactions<\/a> with fewer detector parts. The new design doubles the distance electrons travel through liquid argon. <\/p>\n However, this also requires a much higher voltage to keep the electric field strong enough to guide the electrons to the detector before they disappear. That\u2019s why the researchers are generating an electric field<\/a> of about 300,000 volts (V).<\/p>\n \u201cA battery that you can hold in your hand has one and a half volts between the two ends,\u201d Steve Kettell, PhD, a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and one of DUNE\u2019s technical coordinators, noted. \u201cWe are taking that same concept and scaling it up to 300,000 volts.\u201d<\/p>\n Preparing for underground<\/p>\n Kettell stressed that the team is deliberately pushing the detector<\/a> to its limits. \u201cIt\u2019s like building a lightning storm inside of a detector, but we don\u2019t actually want the physical lightning strikes,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we see sparks, it will allow us to study how all of the various components react.\u201d<\/p>\n The collaboration began commissioning the new prototype in 2025. The ongoing stress test, which began in May 2026, should determine whether the system can reliably maintain the high voltage for extended periods under realistic operating conditions.<\/p>\n The DUNE detectors<\/a> will be installed nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. They will be filled with liquid argon to capture the neutrinos\u2019 rare interactions.<\/p>\n When a neutrino collides with an argon atom, it produces charged particles that leave tiny trails of ionization. The detector\u2019s sensitive electronics will record these signals and allow the scientists to reconstruct the particle\u2019s energy, direction and identity. <\/p>\n DUNE will also observe neutrinos arriving from space that escape exploding stars before visible light. This could potentially give astronomers advance warning of nearby supernovae. The team also hopes the experiment will reveal why matter survived and antimatter largely disappeared after the Big Bang. <\/p>\n The current stress test at CERN is set to continue through the fall. If successful, it will confirm that the detector can operate reliably for decades underground. \u201cIf all the components survive, that\u2019s very encouraging,\u201d Kettell concluded in a press statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have been testing the limits of the world\u2019s largest neutrino experiment after they subjected the prototype detector…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1123568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3845],"tags":[166,305763,97011,160397,199531,305764,75187,5538,74,305765,70,16,15],"class_list":["post-1123567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-cern","tag-deep-underground-neutrino-experiment","tag-dune","tag-fermilab","tag-high-voltage","tag-liquid-argon-detector","tag-neutrinos","tag-particle-physics","tag-physics","tag-protodune","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1123567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1123568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1123567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1123567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1123567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z3_988a8f.jpg\" "\\"300,000")
The single-phase ProtoDUNE detector at CERN.
Credit: CERN<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z2_39c746.jpeg\" "\\"300,000")
The ProtoDUNE team at CERN is testing technology for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in the US.
Credit: CERN<\/a><\/p>\n