Experimental Neutrino Physics

20世纪的主要智力成就之一是粒子物理标准模型(SM)的发展。这个模型成功地将当时已知的所有基本粒子归入具有相似量子性质的群组的层次结构中。在欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机上发现的希格斯玻色子证实了这个模型到目前为止的有效性。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，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公开问题的答案，它是如何形成的，为什么它是这样的，主要领域之一是专注于中微子的性质的研究，并使用我们所知道和可以了解的中微子作为超越标准模型(BSM)的科学探测器。中微子是那些与宇宙中几乎任何其他东西都不相互作用的基本粒子。它们没有电荷，曾经被认为是无质量的。与其他基本粒子一样，它们被认为有一个反物质的对应物，即反中微子。此外，标准模型预测，实际上有三种不同类型的中微子可以通过不同的相互作用来区分，无论何时发生相互作用，它们都会经历不同的相互作用。但最近的测量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，所以它们实际上可以从一种类型变成另一种类型。对中微子相互作用的详细测量形成了探索超越标准模型的新物理的最有希望的方法之一。俄勒冈州立大学正在研究中微子和反中微子如何与费米拉实验室的Minerva实验中的正常物质相互作用，并致力于研发沙丘，这是下一代长基线中微子实验，终点在伊利诺伊州费米实验室，提供中微子束和南达科他州的桑福德地下实验室，那里是探测器的所在地。目前正在测试的是被称为“ProtoDUNEs”的大型探测器原型，这是一种被称为时间投影室的大量基于液体Ar的探测器。这项测试正在瑞士日内瓦的欧洲核子研究中心进行，将指导未来十年为沙丘建造的大型探测器的开发。首席研究员谢尔曼是整个沙丘项目计算和软件工作的联合协调人。这包括开发和实施实验计算模型，组建负责处理ProtoDUNE实验数据的国际科学和技术团队。该项目将创建在粒子和核物理领域有用的计算基础设施，并将培训年轻科学家先进的计算技术，用于分析PB级的数据样本，这些样本在美国经济中非常有价值。国际和平协会通过俄勒冈州物理部监督科学推广活动，这些活动每年接触到城市和农村社区的大量人口。俄亥俄州立大学中微子小组吸引了很大一部分女性和代表不足的少数族裔加入其研究团队。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 neutrino interactions such as those in this project form one of the most promising ways to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model.The Oregon State Group is studying how neutrinos and antineutrinos interact with normal matter in the MINERvA experiment at Fermilab, and are 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. Principal investigator Schellman is co-coordinator of the Computing and Software effort for the overall DUNE project. This includes development and implementation of the experimental computing model and assembling the international scientific and technical team that will be responsible for processing the data from the ProtoDUNE experiments.This project will create computing infrastructure useful across the fields of Particle and Nuclear Physics and will train young scientists in advanced computing techniques for analyzing petabyte data samples which are valuable across the US economy. The PI supervises scientific outreach activities through The Oregon State Physics Department that reaches substantial numbers of people in urban and rural communities every year. The OSU neutrino group attracts a large fraction of women and underrepresented minorities to its research team.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.