Scott M. Oser

Education:

Research:

My research interests span a broad range of experimental high energy physics and particle astrophysics. My current activities are in the areas of direct dark matter searches and gravitational wave detection. My main focus is the SuperCDMS experiment, which will search for light dark matter particles in the 0.5-10 GeV/c² mass range using cryogenic germanium and silicon detectors. SuperCDMS is currently under construction at SNOLAB, and will begin taking data in 2023. I am the PI of the Canadian SuperCDMS contingent, and served previously as the elected head of the SuperCDMS’s collaboration Council and Board. I also lead SuperCDMS’s Data Acquisition (DAQ) group. We have built a new trigger and readout scheme for SuperCDMS using the MIDAS DAQ package, which will provide deadtime-free triggering and data acquisition with very low detection thresholds.

In 2021 I joined the LISA Consortium. LISA is a space-based detector for gravitational waves expected to launch in ~2034. LISA will use laser interferometry between three spacecraft arranged in an equilateral triangle with a side length of 2.5 million km in order to detect modulations in the distance between spacecraft caused by the passage of gravitational waves with frequencies in the ~0.1-100 mHz range. I was co-organizer of the LISA-Canada Workshop in 2021, designed to build and organize Canadian involvement in the mission.

From 2003-2019 I was involved with the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment, and served as national spokesperson of the Canadian T2K effort from 2010-2015. T2K was the first long-baseline neutrino experiment to observe the appearance of electron neutrinos in a beam of muon neutrinos, and to place limits on CP violation in the lepton sector. From 2011-2013 I served co-convener of T2K's near detector group, consisting of over half of the collaboration. I also led the effort to build Fine-Grained Detectors (FGDs) for T2K, which are finely segmented active neutrino targets using polystyrene scintillator, passive water target layers, and Multi-Pixel Photon Counters with wavelength-shifting fibers for read-out. Previously I served as convener of T2K's near detector muon neutrino analysis group and as chair of T2K's Publication Board.

I previously worked on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), which is a solar neutrino experiment designed to measure both the total flux of neutrinos from the Sun and the flux of electron neutrinos. SNO was the first experiment to directly measure the flavor content of the solar neutrino flux, and to demonstrate conclusively that solar neutrinos undergo flavor transformation, pointing to a final resolution of the long-standing solar neutrino problem. Art McDonald was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015 for this discovery. The SNO experiment ended in 2006, and has published its final physics results. My main contributions to the SNO experiment were in the areas of signal extraction techniques, day-night uncertainties, and time variability/periodicity measurements.

I was also involved with the K2K experiment. K2K was the first long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, and concluded data-taking in the fall of 2004. It was designed to look for for neutrino oscillations in a muon neutrino beam sent from the KEK laboratory towards the Super-Kamiokande detector.

As a graduate student I worked in the area of gamma-ray astrophysics with the STACEE experiment. STACEE is a novel ground-based atmospheric Cherenkov telescope built using the steerable mirrors at a solar power test facility. My Ph.D. thesis was the first ground-based measurement of the Crab Nebula's flux and search for pulsed emission from the Crab's pulsar below 200 GeV.

Teaching:

I currently teach Physics 509C, a graduate-level course in statistical data analysis for the physical sciences ,and an upper-level course called Zoological Physics (PHYS 438/BIOL 438), which is cross-listed between the physics and zoology departments.

Selected Awards:

1. CAP-TRIUMF Vogt Medal, 2019

2. Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2016

3. 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics: awarded for my work in both the SNO and T2K collaborations

4. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2008

5. Teaching Excellence Award, UBC Science Undergraduate Society, 2007

6. NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, 2006

7. Canada Research Chair in Origins, 2004-2014

8. National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1994

9. Phi Beta Kappa, 1993

Some Talks I've Given:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (A Neutrino): a talk on neutrinos suitable for the general public

Blind Analyses, or The Answer's Not In the Back of the Book: a colloquium-level talk on blind analyses

Lake Louise Winter Institute 2006:
    Lecture 1: Neutrino Physics Part 1: Neutrinos in the Standard Model, and Why the Standard Model is Wrong
    Lecture 2: Neutrino Physics Part 2: Beyond the Nu Standard Model

Selected Publications (You may also click the following link to search INSPIRES for more of my publications.):

• Ionization yield measurement in a germanium CDMSlite detector using photo-neutron sources, M. Al-Bakry et al. (SuperCDMS collaboration), Physical Review D, to appear, 13 pages, 2022.

• The level-1 trigger for the SuperCDMS experiment at SNOLAB, J.S. Wilson et al., JINST, to appear, 18 pages, 2022.

• Search for low-mass dark matter with CDMSlite using a profile likelihood fit, R. Agnese et al. (SuperCDMS collaboration), Physical Review D 99, 062001, 22 pages, 2019.

• Low-Mass Dark Matter Search with CDMSlite, R. Agnese et al. (SuperCDMS collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 97, 022002 (30 pages), 2018.

• First Dark Matter Constraints from a SuperCDMS Single-Charge Sensitive Detector, R. Agnese et al. (SuperCDMS collaboration), Phys.Rev.Lett. 121, 051301 (6 pages), 2018.

• Search for CP violation in Neutrino and Antineutrino Oscillations by the T2K experiment with 2.2 × 10²¹ protons on target, K. Abe et al. (T2K collaboration), Phys.Rev.Lett. 121, 171802 (9 pages), 2018.

• Measurement of neutrino and antineutrino oscillations by the T2K experiment including a new additional sample of ν_e interactions at the far detector, K. Abe et al. (T2K collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 96, 092006 (50 pages), 2017.

• Maximum Likelihood Analysis of Low Energy CDMS II Germanium Data, R. Agnese et al. (SuperCDMS collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 91, 052021 (13 pages), 2015.

• Another Look at Confidence Intervals: Proposal for a More Relevant and Transparent Approach, Steven D. Biller & Scott M. Oser, NIM A 774, 103-119, 2015.

• Observation of Electron Neutrino Appearance in a Muon Neutrino Beam, K. Abe et al. (T2K collaboration), Phys.Rev.Lett. 112 (2014), 061802, 2014.

• Precise Measurement of the Neutrino Mixing Parameter q₂₃ from Muon Neutrino Disappearance in an Off-axis Beam, K. Abe et al. (T2K collaboration), Phys.Rev.Lett. 112 (2014) 181801, 2014.

• First Muon-Neutrino Disappearance Study with an Off-Axis Beam, K. Abe et al. (T2K collaboration), Phys. Rev. D. 85, 031103, 2012.

• Combined Analysis of all Three Phases of Solar Neutrino Data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmin et al, Phys.Rev. C88 2, 025501, 2013.

• Indication of Electron Neutrino Appearance from an Accelerator-produced Off-axis Muon Neutrino Beam, K. Abe et al., PRL 107, 104801, 2011.

• Characterization and Simulation of the Response of Multi Pixel Photon Counters to Low Light Levels, A. Varechet et al., NIM A 656, 69-83, 2011.

• Low Energy Threshold Analysis of the Phase I and Phase II Data Sets of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmin et al., Phys. Rev C 81, 055504, 2010.

• Searches for High Frequency Variations in the ⁸B Solar Neutrino Flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmin et al., Astrophys.J.710:540-548,2010.

• An Independent Measurement of the Total Active B-8 Solar Neutrino Flux Using an Array of He-3 Proportional Counters at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmin et al., Phys.Rev.Lett.101:111301, 2008.

• Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation by the K2K Experiment, M.H. Ahn et al., Phys. Rev. D 74, 072003, 2006.

• An Improved Search For nu_mu to nu_e Oscillation In A Long-Baseline Accelerator Experiment, S. Yamamoto et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 181801, 2006.

• A Search For Periodicities in the ⁸B Solar Neutrino Flux Measured By the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmin et al., Phys. Rev. D72 (2005), 052010.

• Electron Energy Spectra, Fluxes, and Day-Night Asymmetries of ⁸B Solar Neutrinos from Measurements with NaCl Dissolved in the Heavy-Water Detector at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmim et al., Phys. Rev. C72 (2005), 055502.

• Evidence for muon neutrino oscillation in an accelerator-based experiment, E. Aliu et al, (Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 (2005), 081802).
  
  Measurement of the Total Active ⁸B Solar Neutrino Flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory with Enhanced Neutral Current Sensitivity, S.N. Ahmed et al.  (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004) 181301)

• Direct Evidence for Neutrino Flavor Transformation from Neutral-Current Interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 011301)

• Measurement of Day and Night Neutrino Energy Spectra at SNO and Constraints on Neutrino Mixing Parameters (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 011302)

• Measurement of the rate of nu_e + d --> p + p + e^- interactions produced by 8B solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Phys.Rev.Lett. 87 (2001) 071301)

• High Energy Gamma-Ray Observations of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar with the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (Ap. J. 547, p. 949, 2001)

• The Cosmic Ray Composition Between 10¹⁴-eV and 10¹⁶-eV (Astropart. Phys. 12:1-17, 1999)

• Prototype Test Results of the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE) (NIM A408, p. 468, 1998)

• Limits on the Isotropic Diffuse Flux of Ultra-high Energy gamma-radiation (Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, p.1805, 1997.)

READ A SOLAR NEUTRINO CARTOON HERE!  Yes, the guy in the cartoon is supposed to be me.  Blame my cartoonist wife, who drew it.

Scott Oser June 2, 2022