The EPP Supported Neutrino Program at MIT

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

One of the major intellectual achievements of the 20th century was the development of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. This model succeeded in classifying all of the elementary particles known at the time into a hierarchy of groups having similar quantum properties. The validity of this model to date was recently confirmed by the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. However, the Standard Model as it currently exists leaves open many questions about the universe, including such fundamental questions as to why the Higgs mass has the value it has and why there is no antimatter in the universe. One of the primary areas to search for answers to these and other open questions about the universe, how it came to be, and why it is the way it is, is to focus on a study of the properties of neutrinos and to use what we know and can learn about neutrinos as probes of science Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). Neutrinos are those elementary particles that interact with practically nothing else in the universe. They have no electric charge and were once thought to be massless. Like other elementary particles, they were believed to have an antimatter counterpart, the antineutrino. Moreover, the Standard Model predicted that there were actually three different kinds of neutrinos that were distinguishable through the different interactions that they did undergo whenever there was an interaction. But recent measurements have totally changed our picture of neutrinos. We now know that neutrinos do have a mass and because they do, they can actually change from one type to another. Detailed measurements of these changes as well as others form one of the most promising ways to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model. This project focuses on the continued development and operation of new instrumentation for a detector based on liquid argon and the invention and incorporation of new analytical techniques to search for the so-called sterile neutrino, whose existence is suggested by BSM theories. There is currently a large interest in experimental particle physics in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPC) spurred in part by the proposed Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) project at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) and in neutrino physics in general. This award supports work which furthers the development and impact of LArTPC technology applications, using the MicroBooNE experiment at FNAL. This experiment will further the study of potential signals of sterile neutrinos. Sterile neutrinos are proposed BSM particles that could explain aspects of cosmology and astrophysics such as Dark Matter. MicroBooNE is in the process of making a variety of interesting physics measurements, as well as serving as a proving ground for new hardware techniques relevant for future experiments. Among MicroBooNE's primary physics goals is to provide a cross-check of the "low-energy excess" of electron neutrino events previously identified by the MiniBooNE experiment. There have been recent "hints" that there may be a new type of neutrino, the so-called sterile neutrino. The MicroBoone experiment, with its superior LArTPC detector, should clarify the situation: either rule out or confirm the sterile neutrino evidence. The PI's Group has broader impacts aspects that address development of a globally competitive STEM workforce; increased participation of women and minorities; improved teacher development; improved undergraduate education; and increased public scientific literacy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.