Hidden dimensions exist in the universe, and a 1,300-kilometer device could help uncover them (photo).

A new device called DUNE, currently under construction, will be located underground and will serve as a 1300 km long neutrino detector. It will be situated between the states of Illinois and South Dakota in the USA. Physicists aim to use it to uncover hidden extra dimensions in the universe that may affect the physics of our familiar three-dimensional world by studying changes in neutrino behavior. The research has been published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, reports Live Science.

Neutrinos are among the most elusive particles in the universe, often referred to as ghost particles. There are three known types of neutrinos: muon, electron, and tau neutrinos. Each type has a mass that is billions of times smaller than that of an electron. It is known that neutrinos can transition from one type to another while traveling through space without interacting with other particles. These transitions are called neutrino oscillations.

The new underground DUNE device will specifically study the neutrino oscillations generated by a particle accelerator, and their behavior will be observed using the 1300 km long detector. Physicists believe that muon neutrinos, originally produced, should transform into electron and tau neutrinos as they pass through the detector.

By observing how different types of neutrinos evolve during their journey, scientists hope to unravel several fundamental questions in neutrino physics, such as the mass distribution of neutrinos, the precise parameters governing oscillations, and the role neutrinos may have played in creating the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe.

The authors of the new study believe that the mysterious behavior of neutrinos can be explained by the existence of hidden extra spatial dimensions that extend beyond our familiar three-dimensional world.

The theory of large extra dimensions, proposed in 1998, suggests that our three-dimensional space is embedded in a more complex structure of four or more dimensions. The main motivation for this theory is to explore why gravity is significantly weaker than other fundamental forces in the universe. Additionally, the theory of large extra dimensions offers a potential explanation for the origin of the tiny masses of neutrinos, a phenomenon that remains unexplained within the framework of the Standard Model of particle physics.

According to physicists, if additional dimensions exist, they could alter neutrino oscillations in a way that could be detected by the DUNE detector.

The effects of the extra dimension are primarily determined by its size. This dependency allows researchers to investigate the presence of such dimensions by analyzing how neutrinos interact with matter inside the detector. An extra dimension influences neutrino oscillations, which could provide valuable clues about its potential existence and properties, as modeling has shown. It demonstrated that DUNE could detect an extra dimension if its size is about half a micron, or one millionth of a meter.

DUNE is currently in development and is expected to begin data collection around 2030. Physicists believe that combining DUNE data with observations from space will help to better understand the properties of additional dimensions that should exist.