China-based neutrino experiment recognised with prestigious European award for paving the way in particle physics
- Decade-long Daya Bay project receives 2023 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize from the European Physical Society
- Data set from experiment that ran 2011-20 and involved more than 200 scientists from 41 institutions is still being analysed
The team behind a decade-long neutrino experiment based in China has won one of the world’s highest awards in particle physics.
Established in 1989, the prize is awarded to individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions in the field of high-energy physics experiments, theory or technology. Of the 34 individual winners of the prize, 12 have also received the Nobel Prize for physics.
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The European Physical Society said on its website the researchers’ work had paved the way for some of the most cutting-edge physics experiments now being built in the world which aimed to answer why our universe was dominated by matter rather than antimatter.
The experiment – which ran from 2011 to 2020 and involved more than 200 scientists from 41 institutions – was decommissioned after fulfilling its missions, but the data set it had collected was still being analysed to shed new light on neutrino research, said Cao Jun, a spokesman for the collaboration.
For instance, follow-up analyses of Daya Bay data strongly challenged the assumption that in addition to three well-tested types of neutrinos, a fourth type called sterile neutrino should exist.