Description:

Title: The Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Physics Program at Fermilab

Speaker: David Schmitz, University of Chicago
 

Abstract: The discovery of neutrino masses and mixing has emerged as one of the great success stories of experimental particle physics in recent decades.  Now a firm component of the Standard Model, neutrino oscillations present us with exciting opportunities for continued discovery, from identifying a new source of CP violation (matter-antimatter asymmetry) to searching for new types of ‘sterile’ particles that don’t interact through any of the known fundamental interactions (except gravity).  In this seminar, after quickly reviewing some of the past experimental results that might be hinting at the existence of sterile neutrino states, I will focus on the new Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) physics program happening now at Fermilab.  The first detector, MicroBooNE, is currently operational, and with two additional detectors to come online by 2018, the SBN program will test the sterile neutrino hypothesis around 1 eV^2 with unrivaled sensitivity.  The SBN program has important connections to DUNE, the future long-baseline neutrino experiment in the US, as well.  At the center of both is an exciting detector technology for this physics, the liquid argon time projection chamber, so I will describe our ongoing efforts developing this technology for the challenges ahead.