Nuclear Particle Astrophysics (NPA) Seminar: Diana Parno, University of Washington, “Unmasking the Neutrino: The Standard Model and Beyond”

Event time: 
Thursday, February 4, 2016 - 3:45pm to 4:45pm
Location: 
Wright Lab, EAL 108 Conference Room (EAL108) See map
268 Whitney Avenue
New Haven 06520
(Location is wheelchair accessible)
Event description: 

When nonzero neutrino mass was definitively established some fifteen years ago, these neutral, spin-1/2 elementary particles gave us the first hard evidence of beyond-the-Standard-Model physics in the electroweak sector. Today, many fundamental questions about neutrinos remain. In this talk, I will discuss two exciting projects, COHERENT and KATRIN, that will measure neutrino properties and probe the edges of the Standard Model. The COHERENT experiment plans to make the first unambiguous measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, a predicted Standard Model process and an important background source for WIMP dark-matter searches. Meanwhile, through a precise measurement of the endpoint region of the tritium beta spectrum, the KATRIN experiment will achieve a direct neutrino-mass scale sensitivity of 0.2 eV at the 90% confidence level. I will emphasize two particular contributions to KATRIN’s sensitivity goals: the molecular physics of the T2 source, and the detection of signal electrons at the far end of the 70m beamline. Both KATRIN and COHERENT will explore potential physics topics beyond the Standard Model, from non-standard neutrino interactions, to Lorentz-invariance violation, to sterile neutrinos. Unmasking the neutrino will do more than fill in gaps: it may be a key to mysteries beyond.