CAREER: Resolving Past Mysteries, Preparing for Future Discoveries: The Exciting Opportunities of the Short-Baseline Neutrino Physics Program at Fermilab

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。最近，欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机发现了希格斯玻色子，证实了这一模型的有效性。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，宇宙是如何形成的，为什么会是这样，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标准模型之外的科学探针。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。对这些变化的详细测量，沿着目前的其他中微子实验，构成了探索标准模型之外的新物理学的最有前途的方法之一。在各种新型中微子的实验中已经有了暗示，澄清这些“暗示”是这个项目的主要推力之一。这项工作本身将进一步发展液氩时间投影室（LArTPC）技术，用于中微子物理学，作为短基线近探测器（SBND）实验和MicroBooNE实验的一部分。这些中微子实验都位于费米国家加速器实验室（FNAL）。MicroBooNE实验应该显著增加物理学范围，以回答预测的“无菌”中微子是否存在的重要问题，并解决最近中微子实验中的异常现象。除了对上述中微子物理学基础的贡献外，这项研究还将成为校准、重建和分析技术的宝贵试验场，这些技术将使未来的实验（如计划中的DUNE实验）取得成功。该项目的更广泛影响包括将高能物理学的现有技术带到更广泛的当地社区。芝加哥大学校园周围的南侧社区主要居住着STEM领域代表性不足的群体，该项目旨在在物理系内建立一个项目，将大学生与当地小学和中学生联系起来，通过有趣的互动演示向他们介绍物理概念。

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. 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, along with other current neutrino experiments, form one of the most promising ways to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model. There have been hints in various experiments of new types of neutrinos, and clarifying these "hints" is one of the main thrusts of this project. The work itself will be the further development of the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) technology for use in neutrino physics as part of the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) experiment and the MicroBooNE experiment. These neutrino experiments are all located at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). The MicroBooNE experiment should significantly increase the physics reach toward answering the important question of whether predicted "sterile" neutrinos exist and resolving the anomalies in recent neutrino experiments. In addition to the contribution to the fundamental neutrino physics mentioned above, this research will serve as an invaluable proving ground for the calibration, reconstruction and analysis techniques that will be needed to make future experiments, such as the planned DUNE experiment, a success.The Broader Impact of the project involves bringing current techniques in high energy physics to the broader local community. The south side neighborhoods surrounding the UChicago campus are largely populated with underrepresented groups in STEM fields, and this project aims to build a program within the Department of Physics that connects university students with local elementary and middle school children to introduce them to concepts in physics with the aid of fun, interactive demonstrations.