OPERA experiment

The taus resulting from the interaction of tau neutrinos are observed in "bricks" of photographic films (nuclear emulsion) interleaved with lead sheets.

During data collection, a neutrino interaction and its corresponding brick are tagged in real time by the scintillators and spectrometers.

These bricks are extracted from the walls asynchronously with respect to the beam for film development, scanning and for the topological and kinematic search of tau decays.

[7] In September 2011, OPERA researchers observed muon neutrinos apparently traveling faster than the speed of light.

[8] In February and March 2012, OPERA researchers blamed this result on a loose fibre optic cable connecting a GPS receiver to an electronic card in a computer.

View of the OPERA detector at the CNGS facility
First neutrino events seen by the core of the OPERA experiment