Unlocking the mysteries of the neutrino and its mass through the nucleus

中微子无处不在！它们是宇宙中最丰富的大质量粒子，来自各种各样的地方：太阳、地球和外太空。每秒钟都有数以万亿计的粒子无害地穿过我们的身体。然而，它们很难被探测到，这意味着中微子仍然是宇宙中最神秘的粒子之一，也是唯一一种不能用标准模型（描述宇宙中所有基本粒子的复杂方程）完全解释其行为的粒子。因为它们是电中性的，所以对电荷敏感的粒子探测器是看不见中微子的。只有当它们与物质相互作用，并产生带电的伙伴——像电子这样的粒子——以三种“味道”之一时，我们才能探测到它们。据预测，中微子的质量为零，就像光子（光的粒子）一样，但我们现在知道它们有（微小的）质量，而且它们会“振荡”，在飞行中改变味道。这就提出了一些问题——它们的质量是多少？它们是如何与味道相对应的？它们是如何获得质量的？中微子和它们的反粒子的行为是否不同？研究这些问题的实验使用了许多不同的方法，通常涉及建造在地下深处的巨大粒子探测器。然而，他们都面临着一个共同的挑战：解释他们的测量结果需要了解中微子如何与原子核相互作用。这是极其复杂的，取决于核结构的微妙之处和探测器中相互模仿的无数相互作用机制。然而，如果没有更好的相互作用模型，下一代中微子实验将无法达到新的物理发现所需的精度。本奖学金提出了一种新颖的，综合的方法，研究核效应如何在不同的实验类型中表现出来。我们将使用位于法国阿尔卑斯山下的SuperNEMO的数据，寻找罕见的中微子双β衰变，这是一个从未被观察到的过程，可以帮助解释我们的物质主导的宇宙。我们将增加来自CLAS的精确电子散射测量，在弗吉尼亚州的杰斐逊实验室；并利用来自SBND（伊利诺斯州费米实验室的液体氩基探测器）的中微子散射数据来测试和改进核模型。我们将把它们用于DUNE，这是一个下一代振荡实验，来自英国和其他国家的巨额投资，它将研究从费米实验室到SURF实验室的中微子束，该实验室位于南达科他州的一个前金矿。凭借研究中微子相互作用和无中微子双β衰变的独特背景，这项奖学金将使我有机会将所有这些想法、数据和机会结合在一起，并使我们更接近了解中微子及其质量的奥秘。

Neutrinos are everywhere! The most abundant massive particles in the universe, they come from all sorts of places: the Sun, the Earth, and outer space. Trillions of them pass harmlessly through our bodies every second. However, they are extremely hard to detect, meaning that neutrinos remain some of the most mysterious particles in the universe - and the only ones whose behaviour can't be fully explained by the Standard Model, the complicated equation describing all the fundamental particles in the universe.Because they are electrically neutral, neutrinos are invisible to particle detectors, which are sensitive to electric charge. We can only detect them when they interact with matter, and produce their charged partners - particles like electrons - with one of three "flavours". Neutrinos are predicted to have zero mass - like photons, the particles of light - but we now know that they have (tiny) masses and that they "oscillate", changing flavour in flight. This raises questions - what are their masses and how do they correspond to the flavours, how do they acquire mass, and do neutrinos and their antiparticles behave differently?Experiments investigating these questions use many different approaches, typically involving huge particle detectors, built deep underground. However, they all face a common challenge: interpreting their measurements requires understanding how neutrinos interact with atomic nuclei. This is extremely complicated, depending on subtleties of nuclear structure and myriad interaction mechanisms that mimic each other in detectors. Nevertheless, without better interaction models, next-generation neutrino experiments will not be able to achieve the precision they need to make new physics discoveries.This fellowship proposes a novel, integrated approach, studying how nuclear effects manifest in different experiment types. We'll use data from SuperNEMO, located under the French Alps and seeking the rare neutrinoless double-beta decay, a never-observed process that could help explain our matter-dominated universe. We'll add precision electron-scattering measurements from CLAS, at Jefferson Lab in Virginia; and use neutrino-scattering data from SBND, a liquid-argon-based detector at Fermilab in Illinois, to test and improve nuclear models. We'll implement them for DUNE, a next-generation oscillation experiment with huge investment from the UK and beyond, which will study a beam of neutrinos travelling from Fermilab to the SURF lab, in a former gold mine in South Dakota. With a unique background studying both neutrino interactions and neutrinoless double-beta decay, this fellowship will give me the chance to bring all of these ideas, data and opportunities together, and bring us closer to understanding the mystery of the neutrino and its mass.