Spouses And Partners

NPA Seminar, Anthony Timmins, University of Houston, "ALICE 3 - A new horizon for QCD"

The ALICE experiment was built to study many-body Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD) at high temperature and effectively zero baryon density, using relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These collisions form the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), a state of matter where quarks and gluons are no longer confined inside hadrons. The ALICE physics program centers around the key questions related to QGP phenomena.

NPA Seminar, Karthik Ramanathan, Caltech, "Direct Detection of Dark Matter using Quantum Sensors and Techniques"

Determining the nature of dark matter (DM), a mysterious ‘missing mass’ in the universe, is crucial to completing our models of cosmology and high-energy physics. However, repeated null searches for the most favored DM candidates has motivated a community re-evaluation of the theoretical biases towards this parameter space. Two recent areas of interest, among the many decades of potential DM masses, are particle-like ‘light DM’ with masses less than a GeV and wave-like candidates of O(10) ueV. In this talk, I will discuss R&D work and experiments that seek to probe both avenues.

NPA Seminar, Tereza Kroupová, University of Pennsylvania, "Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay and the SNO+ Experiment"

One of the biggest questions in fundamental particle physics is whether neutrinos are Dirac fermions, with distinct anti-particles, or Majorana fermions, for which the particles and anti-particles are identical. The best available probe of the neutrino nature is neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), a hypothetical process that require massive Majorana neutrinos. This discovery of this lepton number violating process would therefore reveal the neutrino nature and provide a window into physics beyond the Standard Model.

NPA Seminar, Flavio Cavanna, FERMILAB and University of L’Aquila, "The path of the DUNE Experiment at a turning point."

Getting there! DUNE with two 17kt LAr TPC Far Detector (FD1-FD2) modules, a Near Detector Complex and a Neutrino Beam with an intensity of 1.2 MW is well on its way to start physics in 2028 at SURF (SD). Mass Ordering and sensitivity to Maximal CPV - the initial goals of the flagship Long-Baseline (LBL) Neutrino Program - are within reach.  The time has come to define a strategy to achieve the ambitious ultimate precision in the LBL physics goals and possibly further expand the DUNE science scope into the low-energy domain of rare underground physics and BSM searches.

Dissertation Defense: Hannah Bossi, Yale University, "Novel Uses of Machine Learning for Differential Jet Quenching Measurements at the LHC"

At sufficiently high temperatures and pressures, QCD matter becomes a hot and dense deconfined medium known as the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Collisions of relativistic heavy-ions are used to recreate the QGP, providing a rich laboratory for exploring the mysteries of the strong interaction. The intrinsic and dynamic properties of the QGP are probed with jets, narrow cones of particles resulting from the scattering of quarks and gluons with a high momentum transfer.

NPA Seminar, Alba Soto Ontoso, CERN, “The elusive QGP signatures in jet substructure observables”

In heavy-ion collisions, the fragmentation pattern of a high-energy jet is modified by its interactions with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Jet substructure observables, i.e. observables build out of the jet constituents, are thus expected to be sensitive to properties of the medium such as its temperature, length or transport coefficients. So far, experimental measurements at RHIC and the LHC have revealed a narrowing of the jet core with respect to proton-proton collisions.

NPA Seminar, Brian Clark, UMD-College Park, “Chasing the Ghost Particle: Neutrino Astrophysics at the South Pole”

High energy (> TeV) neutrinos are unique messengers to the distant, high-energy universe. As chargeless and weakly interacting particles, neutrinos arrive undeflected and unattenuated from cosmic distances, giving us key insights to the properties of astrophysical accelerators at the highest redshifts. In this talk, I will discuss the ongoing work of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory to detect and study extraterrestrial neutrinos across a broad range in energies, from TeV to EeV.

NPA Seminar, Andi Tan, Princeton University, “Search for Relic Neutrinos in PTOLEMY”

Neutrinos decoupled in the early moments of the Big Bang are believed to be the second most abundant particle in the Universe. PTOLEMY is an experiment for detecting relic neutrinos captured on tritium targets. The challenges of ultra-cold neutrino detection have led to new advances in material technologies, RF detection, TES micro-calorimetry, and a transverse drift electromagnetic spectrometer. In this talk, I will present the current status and prospects of PTOLEMY.

NPA Seminar, Xiaoxuan Chu, BNL, “Searching for gluon saturation at STAR and the EIC”

The gluon distribution function grows with lower and lower momentum fraction x very fast. As the total scattering cross section is bound by quantum mechanics, the raise of the gluon density has to be tamed, which is explained by gluon recombination under the color glass condensate (CGC) framework. A definitive discovery of nonlinear effects in QCD and as such the saturation regime would significantly improve our understanding of the nucleon structure and of nuclear interactions at high energy.

NPA Seminar, Taila Weiss, Yale, “Neutrino Mass Limit from Cyclotron Radiation Spectroscopy”

The neutrino mass scale plays a crucial role in both particle physics and cosmology, yet this scale is unknown. The neutrino masses distort the tritium beta-decay spectrum due to energy conservation. By measuring the tritium spectrum, KATRIN has placed the most precise model-independent limit on the neutrino mass scale, to date (mβ<0.8 eV). Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES), a technique pioneered by Project 8, has the potential to advance beyond KATRIN’s design sensitivity.