Event description:
There’s a lot we know about neutrinos. For example, neutrinos act like ghosts, passing straight through most matter (including space dust, planets, and humans) without interacting at all. They are the Universe’s most plentiful particle and are created, in part, by stars like our Sun. And, we know that neutrinos come in three types and can oscillate back and forth between types as they travel long distances.
But what we don’t know about neutrinos is even more fascinating. In fact, one of the biggest questions in physics has to do with neutrinos: Are neutrinos their own antiparticles?
If the answer is yes, it will require rewriting the Standard Model of Particles and Interactions, our basic understanding of the physical world.
To get one step closer to an answer, physicists built the Majorana Demonstrator nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. After six years of taking data, the collaboration of more than 100 researchers from 16 institutions has published their final results.
At “Deep Talks: What’s the matter with neutrinos?” researchers will explain how the Majorana Demonstrator worked, what they’ve learned, and what questions remain. Our speakers are Jason Detwiler, Majorana Collaboration co-spokesperson and associate professor of physics at the University of Washington, and Julieta Cruszko, assistant professor of physics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Speakers:
Jason Detwiler, University of Washington and Majorana Collaboration co-spokesperson
Jason Detwiler grew up in Seattle, Washington, and received his PhD from Stanford University in 2005. He investigates the properties of fundamental particles and fields, and in performing searches for beyond-the-Standard-Model physics.
Detwiler is currently focused on understanding the mass and nature of the neutrino with the Majorana Demonstrator at SURF and the next-generation experiment, known as LEGEND. He is also involved in experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the KamLAND and KamLAND-Zen experiments in Japan, and he participated in the SNO experiment in Canada.
Julieta Cruszko, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill & Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory
Julieta Cruszko is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. Cruszko is a “nuts and bolts physicist” — she loves the creative work of designing experiments and getting them to work. Cruszko is particularly interested in leveraging our understanding of detector physics to improve experimental sensitivity, and in finding ways to use more of the information our experiments produce.
Cruszko completed her PhD as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in Jason Detwiler’s group at the University of Washington, where she studied neutrinoless double-beta decay with the Majorana Demonstrator. She was a Pappalardo Fellow at MIT before accepting her current position at UNC-Chapel Hills in 2020.
How to attend:
Deep Talks is held at the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center, 160 W. Main Street, in Lead, South Dakota. The event begins at 5 p.m. MT with a social hour that includes a Crow Peak Brewing Company beer tasting (must be 21 and older to drink) and light refreshments. The presentation will begin in the Visitor Center classroom at 6 p.m. MT.
Want to attend virtually? The presentation will be livestreamed on this webpage starting at 6 p.m. MT.
The Deep Talks lecture series is sponsored by Crow Peak Brewing Company, RCS Construction, Northern Hills Federal Credit Union, Edward Jones, and Chuck and Jolene Lichtenwalner.