“Physics on the keV Energy Scale with CUORE: A Search for Solar Axions”
Foundational discoveries in particle physics and astronomy from the early 1900s to the 1930s led to the development of the Standard Model of particle physics in the 1970s and the Standard Cosmological Model in the 2000s. These theories describe the interactions of fundamental particles and the universe’s evolution. However, the explanations of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe and the composition of dark matter remain unresolved questions that span both Standard Models. The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE), a tonne-scale experiment of 988 cryogenic calorimeters, investigates these questions through its primary search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νΒΒ) and direct dark matter detection.
Thesis committee: Karsten Heeger (advisor), Reina Maruyama, Laura Havener, Ian Moult