Experimental Neutrino Physics

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

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 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). 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 neutrino interactions such as those in this project form one of the most promising ways to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model. The Oregon State Group is studying how neutrinos and antineutrinos interact with normal matter in the MINERvA experiment at Fermilab, and are engaged in R&D for DUNE, the next generation, long baseline neutrino experiment with endpoints at Fermilab in Illinois, which provides the neutrino beam, and the Sanford Underground Laboratory in South Dakota, which is home for the detectors. Principal investigator Schellman is coordinator of the Computing and Software effort for the overall DUNE project. This includes development and implementation of the experimental computing model and assembling the international scientific and technical team that will be responsible for processing the data from the ProtoDUNE experiments at CERN. This project will create computing infrastructure useful across the fields of Particle and Nuclear Physics and will train young scientists in advanced computing techniques for analyzing petabyte data samples, skills that are valuable across the US economy. The PI supervises scientific outreach activities through The Oregon State Physics Department that reach substantial numbers of people in urban and rural communities every year. The OSU neutrino group attracts a large fraction of women and underrepresented minorities to its research team. 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.