Yasmine Halmane, Senior Photographer

An ancient Roman ship may help physicists at Yale’s Wright Laboratory create the coldest cubic meter in the universe. 

Researchers at the Wright lab are using the CUORE Upgrade with Particle Identification program (CUPID) to identify a rare process known as neutrinoless double beta decay — a radioactive process that would reveal matter-antimatter dynamics in the universe. Its detection would help to answer why when we look out into the universe, we observe one filled with matter, but not with antimatter.

To conduct the study, the researchers are analyzing lead ingots discovered in the mid-1990s from the wreck of a Roman Late Republican Vessel a few miles from the western coast of Italy.

“This decay, which we are searching for, could prove that neutrinos [the most common particle in the universe] have the properties that explain this imbalance,” Karsten Heeger, director of Yale Wright’s Lab, said. “And so we are essentially using this nuclear decay as a tool to study the quantum properties of neutrinos and learn something fundamental about how neutrinos behave and what their mass is and whether they are their own antiparticles.”

According to Heeger, particles and antiparticles could have annihilated into nothing at the origins of the universe. Instead, a universe emerged that is filled with matter, and scientists do not know the source of this imbalance. 

CUPID succeeds the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events system (CUORE) with new equipment to better monitor for signs of the nuclear decay. Scientists are also actively working on ways to synthetically produce copper with the properties for search experiments such as with CUPID to mitigate the use of the lead ingots, which shield the detectors, Heeger told the News. 

A video about the shipwreck was featured on SciShow, which is hosted by Hank Green. It currently has over four million views. 

Ellery Frahm, an archaeological scientist in the Yale Anthropology Department, recalled hearing about the scientific possibilities left by the shipwreck in the early 2010s. 

Frahm explained that all the ingots in the SciShow video were documented before destructive measures were taken by the CUORE Team. He also claimed it would be difficult to store over 30 metric tons of ingots. This is likely why only 10 percent of the ingots were used by CUORE and they were the ones in the most poor condition

Physicists have also taken an interest in using lead for applications in quantum computing and the search for dark matter, according to Frahm.

“Who knows what the resulting discoveries might lead to?” Frahm said when asked about his thoughts on the applications of the lead ingots. “You know, if it helps quantum computing or finds a cure for cancer, great. That was about the best use of those ingots one could possibly hope for, I would imagine.”

Frahm stated that this collaboration was a special case, since all the other applications he had heard about and taken part in had used physics applications to study archeology, not the opposite.

Kremer noted how the Roman Shipwreck’s lead ingot is located in a clean room deep underneath Italy’s Gran Sasso mountain to shield the experiment from cosmic rays and other environmental backgrounds. In Egypt, he recalled, recycling materials such as ancient limestones were frequently used for building temples.  

“Really, [recycling material] wasn’t a problem for [the Egyptians]. It was taking one manifestation and moving it to the next. And so I think in another respect, maybe using these ancient materials in a modern context would actually be favorable to those people because it is their continued remembrance, and [the Romans] would like to be seen for that,” Kremer said. 

CUPID is located at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in central Italy.

Correction, Sept. 19: This article has been updated to clarify that Ellery Frahm said 30 metric tons of ingots, not 30 kilograms.