Glenn Richardson successfully defends thesis, "Probing the Universe with 136Xe - The Physics Reach of nEXO"
On June 30, Glenn Richardson successfully defended the thesis “Probing the Universe with 136Xe - The Physics Reach of nEXO” (advisor: David Moore).
Richardson explained, “For several decades, physicists have used liquid xenon detectors to investigate massive open questions, such as the nature of dark matter or why there is more matter than antimatter in the Universe. My thesis work focuses on exploring how these same detectors can also be used to make world-leading measurements of our Sun.”
Richardson continued, “By leveraging a unique signature created when particles emitted from the Sun interact with liquid xenon, these specialized detectors can be repurposed to study details like the Sun’s core temperature and its metal content. In essence, this research expands the capabilities of these large-scale physics experiments, allowing us to extract entirely new science from the existing technology.”
Richardson will next be a postdoc at FRIB/Queens working on the SALER experiment which seeks to embed short-lived radioactive nuclei in Superconducting Tunnel Junctions by placing these detectors directly in the rare isotope beam lines. One of the primary goals Richardson will be working on with this experiment is a precise measurement of Vud.
Thesis Abstract: nEXO is a proposed 5-tonne liquid xenon time projection chamber designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe with a half-life sensitivity better than 10{28} years. Observation of this rare, Standard Model–forbidden process would provide direct evidence of new physics and could help address several open questions, including the origin of the matter–antimatter asymmetry in the universe. The first part of this talk will focus on recent work to develop and prototype the charge readout modules for nEXO, which will be key to enabling energy reconstruction and signal/background discrimination in nEXO’s analysis. The second part will highlight efforts to expand the physics program of nEXO by using charged-current interactions (ve + 136Xe → 136Cs* + e-) to make background-free measurements of solar neutrinos and fermionic dark matter. Finally, I will discuss preliminary work done at TRIUMF to measure additional nuclear structure properties of 136Cs, which will provide crucial input for both these efforts.
Thesis committee: David Moore (advisor), Reina Maruyama, David Poland, Brian Lenardo (SLAC), and Scott Haselschwardt (University of Michigan)