The CETUP* impact: Summer physics workshop at Sanford Underground Research Facility continues to spur scientific advancement

Every incredible invention, from the jet engine to a smartphone touch screen, started somewhere. These innovations were once just math on a blackboard, a happy accident during an experiment, or a chance water cooler discussion with a colleague that sparked an idea.

About 15 years ago, a group of physicists realized that bringing together their colleagues with lectures on the latest advancements in the field, and ample time for deep exchange, mentorship, and discussions, could lead to collaboration and even eureka moments. 

They started the Center for Theoretical Underground Physics * and Related Areas (CETUP*) workshop, bringing scientists from around the world to the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) each summer.  Their idea worked – and a new workshop unlike any other was born.

“CETUP* is vital to modern physics because it unites the world’s leading and emerging scientists in an immersive, collaborative environment that accelerates groundbreaking discoveries, strengthens the global research community, and directly shapes landmark experiments probing the fundamental nature and origins of the universe,” said Barbara Szczerbinska,  professor of physics and associate dean for academic affairs at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She first established CETUP* in 2011.

Over the years, CETUP* has produced more than 209 publications and become a hallmark of scientific exchange, contributing to major experiments at SURF, including the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), the largest physics experiment ever undertaken in the United States, and LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) the world’s leading dark matter detector.

Today, the workshop run by The Institute for Underground Science at SURF includes about 70 scientists who converge on the beautiful Black Hills town of Lead each summer—they tour the underground lab spaces, host lectures and discussions during the day, and are paired with mentorship and career-building opportunities for researchers. Participants also engage in community events like the weekly Pub Talks during the evenings, and a student outreach component that helps inspire the next generation of researchers.  

Nicole Bell, a theoretical physicist and professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia, says the kind of collaboration that spurs from gatherings like CETUP* helps drive the creativity needed for scientific advancement.

“You know you're figuring out the answers to problems whose answers are not yet known -- putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and doing something that hasn't been done before. It's absolutely a creative process,” Bell said.

Jaehoon Yu, a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Arlington, points out that the big questions being asked by scientists such as the origins of the universe and the fundamental nature of matter, can’t be answered by one person working alone.  

“One of the fundamental things we need to continue is building a community of researchers.  Because the community is what's needed to accomplish the goal of understanding the universe and how it began,” Yu said.  

The CETUP* community consists of a wide swath of researchers involved in underground science, including both theorists and experimental scientists. The range of participant expertise is one of the pillars of the workshop series.  When people from multiple backgrounds, fields, and career stages come together in a relaxed setting, each can bring a unique set of skills that, when combined, prove valuable in tackling complex problems.

Isabelle Goldstein is an early-career physicist serving as a post-doctoral researcher at Texas A&M University.

“It's really important for scientists to be in conversation with each other, so that we know what problems each group is seeing. Whether you're doing physics underground at a place like SURF or astrophysics in space, we have to know what problems people are seeing, what they're thinking about,” Goldstein said. “CETUP* is an excellent way to just stay connected with the community and be able to exchange ideas and come up with new ones.”

Baha Balantekin, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, notes that CETUP* has played an important role in the growth of America’s Underground Lab in the past and that it has the potential to remain vital in the years to come.  

“I would very much hope that these efforts will continue, and the underground lab will grow, because it's really crucial for the U.S. science, not only for the local universities, but the U.S. science and science around the world to have an underground laboratory in the United States.”

Here are three examples of the 209 research citations published following collaboration and connections made at the CETUP* workshop.

• One high-impact paper Dark Matter Velocity Distributions: Comparing Numerical Simulations to Analytic Results emerged directly from a CETUP* breakout discussion on dark matter velocity distributions, with authors modelling the expected signal at large underground xenon detectors. The paper underscores how refined theory of velocity distributions sharpen detection strategies for LZ at SURF.
  (See: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.063016, also available via arXiv 2309.01979.)
• In another case, a theory-experiment crossover for neutrino-dark matter interactions was refined during CETUP* week; the resulting article New Constraints on Neutrino-Dark Matter Interactions: A Comprehensive Analysis in arXiv (report number CETUP-2023-022). This research feeds into planning for DUNE by clarifying what neutrino detectors can tell us about hidden-sector physics. (See: arXiv:2507.01000.)
• This more recent publication explored possible characteristics of a supernova explosion: Nonconservation of Lepton Numbers in the Neutrino Sector Could Change the Prospects for Core Collapse Supernova Explosions (See: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01080, https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/gnp5-4y8k)

The next CETUP* workshop will take place from June 22 -July 17, 2026, in Lead, SD. 

Learn more about the Institute for Underground Science at SURF in this video.

Photo caption: 

Attendees tour the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment on the 4850 Level of SURF during the CETUP* summer workshop.  Photo by Stephen Kenny / SURF.