Precision Measurements of Neutrino Oscillations and Interactions

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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. We now know that neutrinos have a mass and because they do, they can 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 award further advance our understanding of these neutrino interactions. 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 large detectors. This award will contribute to the R&D of both the far detector in South Dakota and the near detector at FNAL for the DUNE experiment, with the long term goal of potentially observing neutrinos from supernovae and testing the neutrino flavor mixing paradigm as well as continuing the search for CP violation.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.