On 31 October 2026, at 16:00, the JINR Universal Public Library invites everyone interested to the “Neutrino, dark matter, and JUNO: in search of the invisible” lecture by DLNP leading researcher Oleg Smirnov.
Every second, trillions of neutrinos pass through us unnoticed. These ghost particles are born in thermonuclear fusion reactions in the depths of the Sun and in nuclear reactors as well as during star explosions, bringing information about processes that cannot be seen directly. Physicists have already learned how to register them and have discovered that they have a mass, albeit a very small one. However, we still do not know the exact values of these masses and why they are so small.
At the lecture, we will discuss in simple words what is known about neutrino, what questions remain open and how the JUNO Experiment, a huge underground detector in China, will help answer them. Let’s look at how flashes of light make it possible to study almost elusive particles, why observe neutrino from reactors, and what it can tell us about the Sun, Earth, and distant supernovae. And due to the Day of Dark Matter, let’s talk about what unites neutrino with the invisible matter of the Universe and why known neutrino does not solve the mystery of dark matter.
