Precision Studies of Neutrino Oscillations and Interactions

世纪的主要学术成就之一是粒子物理学标准模型（SM）的发展。该模型成功地将当时已知的所有基本粒子分类为具有相似量子特性的组的层次结构。到目前为止，这个模型的有效性被欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机上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的价值以及为什么宇宙中没有反物质等基本问题。对于这些和其他关于宇宙的开放性问题，它是如何形成的，以及为什么它是这样的，寻找答案的主要领域之一是专注于中微子性质的研究，并利用我们所知道的和可以了解的关于中微子的知识作为超越标准模型（BSM）的科学探针。中微子是那些基本粒子，在宇宙中几乎不与其他任何东西相互作用。它们不带电荷，曾经被认为是无质量的。像其他基本粒子一样，它们被认为有一个反物质对应物，反中微子。此外，标准模型预测，实际上有三种不同类型的中微子，它们可以通过不同的相互作用来区分，无论何时发生相互作用。但是最近的测量已经完全改变了我们对中微子的看法。我们现在知道中微子确实有质量，因为它们有质量，它们实际上可以从一种类型变成另一种类型。威廉和玛丽小组正在通过NOvA实验寻找CP破坏（与宇宙中物质和反物质的不平衡有关）的证据，并正在通过MINERvA实验研究中微子如何在正常物质中相互作用。 该小组还从事DUNE的研发工作，DUNE是下一代长基线中微子实验，其终点位于伊利诺斯州的费米实验室，该实验室提供中微子束，位于南达科他州的桑福德地下实验室是探测器的所在地。 目前正在测试的是大型探测器原型，称为“ProtoDUNE”，这是一种基于大量液体氩的探测器，称为时间投影室。 测试正在瑞士日内瓦的欧洲核子研究中心进行，并将指导未来十年将为DUNE建造的大型探测器的开发。威廉和玛丽小组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。 除了促进科学教育在学院，该集团经营一个成功的新兴学者计划在当地小学。这个为期十周的课后课程让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来自该奖项反映了NSF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进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

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.