A&S Graduate Studies
[PAST EVENT] Henry J. Monge-Camacho: Physics Dissertation Defense
Henry J. Monge-Camacho, Final Oral Examination for the Ph.D., Title: "Lattice QCD for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay: Short Range Operator Contributions ."
Abstract: The Standard Model has been very successful in describing the universe we observed. Yet, there are open questions that we are not able to answer based entirely on the Standard Model, for example, why there is a matter asymmetry in the universe. A few years ago, with the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which proved neutrinos are massive, new possibilities arose to answer those questions, such as the observation of the neutrinoless double beta decay. This lepton number violating process, would prove neutrinos are majorana particles, and has motivated experimental searches around the world. Thus, precise calculations of nuclear matrix elements are important to determine decay rates from different contributions and help the search. In this talk, I will first discuss my work on a highly precise determination of the nucleon axial charge. Then a Lattice QCD calculation of contributions to neutrinoless double beta decay arising from the short range interactions is presented. Finally, a modification of the method to compute the nucleon axial charge is presented as an alternative for the remaining and challenging calculations.
Bio: Henry Monge-Camacho was born in Cartago, Costa Rica. He attended the University of Costa Rica where he received his Bachelors of Science degree in 2008. Then he worked in the forensic sciences field until 2014 when he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in physics at William & Mary. He joined Kostas Orginos and Andr? Walker-Loud on the Nuclear and Particle Theory Group under to do research on Lattice QCD. After graduation, he will start a postdoc appointment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.