RUI: Numerical Tools for Flavor Studies of the Supersymmetric Neutrino Seesaw Mechanism

Rhode Island College, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

This RUI award provides a small international travel grant to Professor Brandon Murakami at Rhode Island College. Professor Murakami is seeking to develop a computer code through which it will be possible to conduct studies that lie at the interface between two important themes in high-energy physics: supersymmetry (a mathematical symmetry that relates bosons and fermions to each other), and flavor (i.e., the repeating structure of quark and lepton generations in the standard model). Both represent extremely timely and cutting-edge topics, especially as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is beginning to take data. This small grant will enable the PI to develop and plan a research collaboration with faculty members at Nagoya University in Japan, one of whom is a former collaborator of the PI. As such, this proposal has not only intellectural merit but also significant broader impacts, not only for the research community who will be gaining another well-trained practitioner (especially as the LHC begins operations), but also for the RUI community where the PI conducts his research and teaches.