The EPP Supported Neutrino Program at MIT

20世纪最重要的智力成就之一是粒子物理学标准模型（SM）的发展。这个模型成功地将当时已知的所有基本粒子划分为具有相似量子特性的等级。到目前为止，这个模型的有效性最近被欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机发现的希格斯玻色子所证实。然而，目前存在的标准模型留下了许多关于宇宙的问题，包括为什么希格斯质量具有它所具有的价值以及为什么宇宙中没有反物质等基本问题。寻找这些和其他关于宇宙的开放性问题的答案的主要领域之一，它是如何形成的，为什么它是这样的，就是把重点放在中微子的特性研究上，并利用我们所知道的和可以学到的中微子作为超越标准模型（BSM）的科学探测器。中微子是一种基本粒子，它几乎不与宇宙中任何其他物质相互作用。它们不带电荷，一度被认为是无质量的。像其他基本粒子一样，它们被认为有一种反物质，即反中微子。此外，标准模型预测，实际上有三种不同的中微子，它们在相互作用时所经历的不同相互作用可以区分开来。但是最近的测量完全改变了我们对中微子的认识。我们现在知道中微子确实有质量，正因为如此，它们实际上可以从一种类型转变为另一种类型。对这些变化以及其他变化的详细测量构成了探索超越标准模型的新物理的最有希望的方法之一。这个项目的重点是继续开发和运行一种基于液态氩的探测器的新仪器，以及发明和结合新的分析技术来寻找所谓的无菌中微子，这种中微子的存在是由BSM理论提出的。目前，人们对液态氩时间投影室（LArTPC）的实验粒子物理学产生了很大的兴趣，部分原因是费米国家加速器实验室（FNAL）提出的长基线中微子实验（LBNE）项目以及一般的中微子物理学。该奖项支持在FNAL使用MicroBooNE实验，进一步开发和影响LArTPC技术应用的工作。该实验将进一步研究惰性中微子的潜在信号。无菌中微子被认为是BSM粒子，可以解释宇宙学和天体物理学的某些方面，如暗物质。MicroBooNE正在进行各种有趣的物理测量，并作为与未来实验相关的新硬件技术的试验场。MicroBooNE的主要物理目标之一是对先前由MiniBooNE实验确定的电子中微子事件的“低能过剩”进行交叉检查。最近有“迹象”表明可能存在一种新型中微子，即所谓的惰性中微子。MicroBoone实验，其优越的LArTPC探测器，应该澄清情况：要么排除或确认无菌中微子的证据。PI集团在解决全球竞争力STEM劳动力的发展方面具有更广泛的影响；增加妇女和少数民族的参与；提高教师发展水平；加强本科教育；提高公众的科学素养。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.