From MicroBooNE to DUNE: Towards the Biggest, Most Intense Neutrino Experiments Ever!

Neutrinos provide a promising window to probe a wide range of fundamental physics. Neutrino related discoveries in the last two decades indicate that the answer to the most sought after question of why we live in a matter-dominated universe maybe within reach. Although more than a trillion of neutrinos pass unnoticed through our bodies every second, they still remain largely mysterious. These ghostly little particles are notoriously difficult to detect given how rarely they interact with matter and require building immense and exquisitely sensitive detectors. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab with primary goals of resolving the neutrino mass ordering and measuring the charge-parity violating phase, the indicator of a possible explanation for our matter dominated universe. DUNE will use the promising liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) technology as it presents neutrino interactions with unprecedented detail. However, the path to DUNE is technologically very challenging as it will be the biggest neutrino experiment ever to be built. The MicroBooNE experiment, which is currently taking data with the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab, serves as a design example for DUNE along with providing valuable experience in operating and calibrating large LArTPC detectors. After briefly reviewing the current state of neutrino physics and open questions, this talk will describe the MicroBooNE and DUNE experiments and highlight some recent results from MicroBooNE. A near term program of DUNE prototypes is also described along with addressing the technological challenges involved in the path to realizing DUNE.