Precision Measurements of Neutrino Oscillations and Interactions

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。我们现在知道中微子有质量，因为它们有质量，所以它们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形成了探索超越标准模型的新物理的最有前途的方法之一。这一奖项进一步加深了我们对这些中微子相互作用的理解。威廉和玛丽小组正在利用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，并正在利用Minerva实验研究中微子如何在正常物质中相互作用。该小组还致力于沙丘的研发，这是下一代长基线中微子实验，其终点设在伊利诺伊州的费米拉实验室(Fermilab)和南达科他州的桑福德地下实验室(Sanford Underrain Labs)，前者提供中微子束，后者是大型探测器的所在地。这一奖项将为南达科他州的远探测器和FNAL的近探测器的沙丘实验的研发做出贡献，长期目标是潜在地观测来自超新星的中微子，测试中微子混合范例，以及继续寻找CP违反。威廉和玛丽小组致力于让本科生参与研究，作为他们本科教育的重要组成部分。除了在学院推广科学教育外，该组织还在当地一所小学开展了一个成功的新兴学者项目。这项为期十周的课后计划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-詹姆斯市县学校资优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会议期间的观察记录而得到发展和加强。该奖项反映了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. 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.