DUNE: Pre-Construction Phase

LBNF/Dune项目是高能粒子物理学领域的全球旗舰倡议，旨在解决关于宇宙起源和结构的关键问题。长基线中微子设施(LBNF)将是世界上最强的高能中微子束。它将从伊利诺伊州费米拉实验室1300公里处向南达科他州7万吨沙丘探测器发射中微子，以研究中微子振荡。沙丘将是作为一个真正的国际项目在美国进行的第一次大规模试验。沙丘在美国和欧洲得到了全球粒子物理界的广泛支持，对发展中国家的兴趣也越来越大；沙丘目前是一个由来自30个国家的950多名合作者组成的科学合作项目，整个英国处于领先地位。LBNF/Dune将开展一项改变游戏规则的中微子物理计划。其最高级别的科学目标针对的是物理学中的重大问题：1)中微子CP破坏的发现和测量。中微子和反中微子之间的这种细微差别可能是宇宙中剩余物质的原因；2)精确的中微子物理学，包括确定质量等级；3)寻找超越目前对中微子振荡的理解的新物理；4)观测从星系核坍塌的超新星爆发的电子中微子，提供对中子星和可能的黑洞形成的实时探测；5)寻找质子衰变，这是大多数新物理模型中预期的，但尚未观察到。英国计划通过英国大学、英国国家实验室和英国工业界的合作，为建造大质量沙丘Far探测器做出重大贡献。在这项提案中，英国科学家正在申请资源，为这一全球科学项目建造探测器元件的生产工艺提供原型。

The LBNF/DUNE project is a global flagship initiative in high-energy particle physics that addresses key questions on the origin and structure of the universe. The long-baseline neutrino facility (LBNF) will be the world's most intense high-energy neutrino beam. It will fire neutrinos 1300 km from Fermilab in Illinois towards the 70,000 ton DUNE detector in South Dakota in order to study neutrino oscillations. DUNE will be the first large-scale US-hostedexperiment run as a truly international project. DUNE has broad support from the global particle physics community in the US and Europe and with growing interest in developing countries; DUNE currently is a scientific collaboration of over 950 collaborators from 30 nations, with overall UK leadership.LBNF/DUNE will undertake a game-changing programme of neutrino physics. Its highest-level scientific goals target big questions in physics: 1) Discovery and measurements of neutrino CP violation. This subtle difference between neutrinos and antineutrinos could be responsible for the remaining matter in the universe;2) Precision neutrino physics, including the definitive determination of the mass hierarchy;3) Search for new physics beyond the current understanding of neutrino oscillations;4) Observation of the electron neutrino burst from a galactic core-collapse supernova, providing a real-time probe of neutron star and possibly black hole formation;5) Search for proton decay, expected in most models of new physics, but not yet observed.The UK plans to make a major contribution to the construction of the massive DUNE far detector, through a partnership between UK universities, UK national laboratories and UK industry. In this proposal UK scientists are requesting resources to prototype the production processes for the construction of detector elements for this global scientific project.