Precision Studies of Neutrino Oscillations and Interactions

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。迄今为止，该模型的有效性已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。威廉和玛丽小组正在用NOvA实验寻找CP违逆的证据（与宇宙中物质和反物质的不平衡有关），并正在用MINERvA实验研究中微子如何在正常物质中相互作用。该小组还参与了DUNE的研发，这是下一代长基线中微子实验，其端点在伊利诺伊州的费米实验室提供中微子束，而南达科他州的桑福德地下实验室则是探测器的所在地。目前正在测试的是名为“ProtoDUNEs”的大型探测器原型，这是一种名为“时间投影室”的大型液体氩气探测器。测试正在瑞士日内瓦的欧洲核子研究中心进行，并将指导未来十年为DUNE建造的大型探测器的发展。威廉玛丽集团致力于让本科生参与研究，将其作为本科教育的重要组成部分。除了促进学院的科学教育外，该组织还在当地一所小学成功地开展了一个新兴学者项目。这个为期十周的课后项目让那些来自历史上在科学领域代表性不足的社区的学生接触到实践物理学家和令人兴奋的科学活动。该计划是在与威廉斯堡-詹姆斯市县学校的天才学生协调员协商后制定的，并根据与学生的后续讨论反馈和专家的会议观察笔记进行了发展和加强。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 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.The William and Mary Group is searching for evidence of CP Violation (related to the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe) with the NOvA experiment and is studying how neutrinos interact in normal matter with the MINERvA experiment. The group is also 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. Presently under test are large detector prototypes called "ProtoDUNEs", which are massive liquid-Argon based detectors called Time Projection Chambers. The testing is underway at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, and will guide the development of the massive detectors that will be built for DUNE in the next decade.The William and Mary group is committed to engaging undergraduates in research as a vital component of their undergraduate education. Beyond promoting science education at the College, the group operates a successful Emerging Scholars program at a local elementary school. This ten-week, after-school program exposes students who are from communities historically underrepresented in the sciences to practicing physicists and exciting science activities. The program was developed in consultation with the Coordinator for Gifted and Talented Students of the Williamsburg- James City County schools and has grown and been strengthened based on feedback from follow-up discussions with the students and notes from in-session observations by specialists.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.