China's 'ghost particle' detector confirms physics mystery in first major result

The world's largest transparent "ghost particle" detector has officially announced its first significant physics breakthrough. Just months after becoming operational, China's Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) has successfully verified the existence of the "solar neutrino tension" – a mysterious inconsistency in how particle physics laws seem to function.

This achievement demonstrates that the massive detector, built over a decade of intensive construction, operates with world-class accuracy.

The discovery: A tension in the data

Neutrinos are fundamental particles that make up the universe, but they are notoriously difficult to study. Historically, scientists have observed a slight mismatch – or "tension" – between data collected from the sun and that gathered from nuclear power plants.

In JUNO's very first run, using data collected between August 26 and November 2, it measured these parameters with 1.5 to 1.8 times better accuracy than any previous experiment. This unmatched precision confirmed that the discrepancy is real, not just a measurement error.

Achieving such precision within just two months of operation demonstrates that JUNO is performing exactly as designed," said Wang Yifang, the JUNO project manager and spokesperson.

The "ghost particle" trap

The experiment is situated 700 meters underground in southern China's Guangdong Province to protect it from cosmic interference. At its core is a 20,000-ton liquid detector housed inside a large acrylic sphere. When elusive neutrinos pass through the sphere, they produce faint flashes of light, which are detected by thousands of sensors surrounding it.

Now that JUNO has demonstrated its sensitivity, it is prepared to pursue its main scientific goal: determining the "mass ordering" of neutrinos – identifying which type is the heaviest. This is one of the most important unresolved problems in particle physics.

With this level of accuracy, JUNO will soon determine the neutrino mass ordering, test the three-flavor oscillation framework, and search for new physics beyond it," Wang added.

A global milestone

The project is a significant international collaboration led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, involving over 700 scientists from 17 countries.

The facility is built to operate for over 30 years, heralding a new era of discovery in understanding the universe's building blocks. As IHEP director Cao Jun mentioned, "JUNO will continue to deliver important results and train new generations of physicists for decades to come."