Bulletin of the American Physical Society
75th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of APS
Volume 53, Number 13
Thursday–Saturday, October 30–November 1 2008; Raleigh, North Carolina
Session GA: Forefront Particle Physics |
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Chair: Brad Cox, University of Virginia Room: Holiday Inn Brownstone Washington |
Friday, October 31, 2008 8:30AM - 9:00AM |
GA.00001: Neutrinos -- Going to extremes Invited Speaker: Like the Southeastern Section of the APS, neutrinos are also septuagenarians, having been ``born'' in 1930 as a means of solving the apparent violation of energy and angular momentum in nuclear beta-decay. Because of their elusive nature, we have had a limited grasp of their intrinsic properties. However, in the past decade our understanding of neutrinos and their role in the universe has undergone a remarkable transformation. We have discovered that neutrinos morph from one species to another as they journey through matter and space. And based on these observations we know that neutrinos are not massless particles, but have tiny masses, being at least 250,000 times lighter than electrons. Yet even with such diminutive masses, neutrinos play important roles in shaping the largest scales of the cosmos. Today much remains unknown about neutrino properties. What do neutrinos ``weigh'' --- we still do not know their absolute masses. Are neutrinos and anti-neutrinos indistinguishable from one another (Majorana particles), indicating lepton number violation? Might neutrinos account for the matter -- antimatter asymmetry observed in the universe? Future neutrino experiments aim to address these questions, but the extreme nature of neutrinos presents daunting experimental challenges. The consequences of deciphering neutrino properties will be profound, guiding us to the formation of a new ``standard model'' of fundamental particle interactions, impacting our models of astrophysics and cosmology, and perhaps holding the key to understanding our existence. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 31, 2008 9:00AM - 9:30AM |
GA.00002: Accelerator-based Neutrino Physics at Fermilab Invited Speaker: The discovery of neutrino mass has excited great interest in elucidating the properties of neutrinos and their role in nature. Experiments around the world take advantage of solar, atmospheric, reactor, and accelerator sources of neutrinos. Accelerator-based sources are particularly convenient since their parameters can be tuned to optimize the measurement in question. At Fermilab an extensive neutrino program includes the MiniBooNE, SciBooNE, and MINOS experiments. Two major new experiments, MINERvA and NOvA, are being constructed, plans for a high-intensity neutrino source to DUSEL are underway, and an R\&D effort towards a large liquid argon detector is being pursued. The NOvA experiment intends to search for electron neutrino appearance using a massive surface detector 811 km from Fermilab. In addition to measuring the last unknown mixing angle, theta(13), NOvA has the possibility of seeing matter-antimatter asymmetries in neutrinos and resolving the ordering of the neutrino mass states. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 31, 2008 9:30AM - 10:00AM |
GA.00003: Plans and Prospects at Fermilab Invited Speaker: I will give an overview of work being done by the D\O\ and CDF collaborations in anticipation of searches for new physics planned by the LHC collaborations. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 31, 2008 10:00AM - 10:12AM |
GA.00004: The T2K Long Baseline Neutrino Beam Experiment Joshua Albert T2K is a long baseline neutrino beam experiment scheduled to begin operation in 2009. The energy of the $\nu_{\mu}$ beam from JPARC and the distance (295 km) to the far detector (Super-Kamiokande) have been chosen to maximize sensitivity to $\nu_{e}$ appearance through neutrino oscillation. The expected sensitivity is an order of magnitude better than current experiments. Observation of $\nu_{\mu} \rightarrow \nu_{e}$ oscillations in the T2K beam would provide a non-zero measurement of $\theta_{13}$. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 31, 2008 10:12AM - 10:24AM |
GA.00005: Prospects for a Low Threshold Neutrino Experiment at the SNS Diane Markoff A low-threshold neutrino scattering experiment at a high-intensity stopped-pion neutrino source has the potential to measure coherent neutral current neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering. Coherent scattering is a vital process for driving stellar explosion mechanisms which are as yet poorly understood in supernova evolution, and may provide a means to detect neutrino bursts from nearby supernova. The coherent scattering interaction rate can be very precisely calculated in the Standard Model, therefore comparison to measurements provides for another means to test the Standard Model and an opportunity to search for non-standard neutrino interactions. A promising prospect for the measurement of this process is a proposed noble-liquid-based experiment, dubbed CLEAR (Coherent Low-Energy A(Nuclear) Recoils), at the Spallation Neutron Source located at ORNL in Tennessee. This talk will describe the CLEAR proposal and its physics reach. [Preview Abstract] |
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