Physics Events
[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium
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- Open to the public
Speaker: Prof. Tricia Vahle, William & Mary Physics Department, Title of talk: New results from accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments
Abstract: Neutrino oscillations provide the first hints at physics beyond the standard model of particle physics. Current and future neutrino experiments aim to further refine our understanding of neutrino mixing and reveal the remaining unknowns in the process. Precision measurements in long-baseline accelerator experiments could help answer profound questions about the origin and evolution of our universe, including the assymetry of matter over antimatter. The NOvA experiment at Fermilab uses a beam of neutrinos and two detectors separated by an 810 km baseline to observe muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance. These measurements have the potential to resolve the ordering of the neutrino masses, called the hierarchy, determine whether the mixing angle theta_23 is maximal, and if not in which octant it lies, and perhaps even hint at the violation of CP in the neutrino sector. In this talk, I'll describe the current status of accelerator oscillation experiments seeking to answer these questions, and in particular present new results from the NOvA experiment.