The detector, called Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss (ORCA), detects elusive particles called neutrinos. As a doctoral student, Alba Domi rode onto the Mediterranean aboard one of two boats that helped build the telescope, lowering some of its first detection units to the seafloor about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) below the waves off Toulon, France.
The team found no sign that this rule, called Lorentz invariance, is broken. But even with a detector only a fraction of its planned size, they set limits that compete with those of far larger and longer-running experiments.
Physics rests on two successful theories: general relativity, conceived by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago, and the Standard Model of subatomic physics.
Both theories assume Lorentz invariance to be true. But in extreme settings, such as the first moments after the Big Bang, the two theories don't mesh. That has fueled a decades-long hunt for a theory of quantum gravity that unites them. Some candidates, including versions of string theory and loop quantum gravity, suggest that space-time might have a hidden "grain" at the tiniest scales — and that Lorentz invariance, "one of the most basic assumptions we make about our universe, might be violated," Hennig said.
Shape-shifting ghosts
Neutrinos are nearly massless particles that pass through Earth every second and carry zero charge. They barely interact with anything and come in three types: electron, muon and tau neutrinos. As neutrinos travel, they morph from one type into another in a predictable pattern that physicists call neutrino oscillation.
An optical module attached to the Dyneema ropes of the detection unit. (Image credit: KM3NeT Collaboration)ORCA is part of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope. Each of its detection units is anchored to the seabed and holds 18 glass spheres packed with 31 light sensors apiece. When a neutrino collides with a particle in the water, it produces a faint flash of blue light that the sensors catch. The many sensors in each sphere help the team pin down which direction the light came from, Domi said.
That setup differs from that of IceCube, the Nobel Prize-winning detector buried in Antarctic ice. "Ice scatters the light more than water, but on the other hand, water absorbs the light more than ice," Domi said, which changes how each team reconstructs a neutrino's energy and path.
Small but mighty
Those limits matter for theorists. If a model "predicts a Lorentz invariance violation [stronger than the new limits], the data rule it out. In that case, you can be pretty sure that this model is not correct," Hennig said.
The detector's limits on several key measures are competitive with those from Japan's Super-Kamiokande, which used 12 years of data, and from IceCube, which used two years of data from its full array.
Related stories"I'm surprised that we have competitive results with only six detection units," Hennig said. Today, 44 units are in the water, and the collaboration plans to activate 108 by 2030.
If space-time does have a grain, those particles may be among the first to feel it.
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