What is the mass of the neutrino? Why is there an abundance of matter over antimatter in our universe? And what is dark matter? Strangely enough, answers might very well lie, yet undiscovered, in impossibly rare nuclear decays, infinitely subtle wobblings of nuclei embedded in radioactive molecules, or the faintest recoils of nuclei colliding with dark matter.
As the role of atomic nuclei in unraveling such fundamental mysteries continues to deepen, first principles quantum simulations, starting from only underlying nuclear and weak forces, are currently undergoing nothing short of a revolution. In this talk I will outline this modern "ab initio" approach to nuclear theory and spotlight several recent milestones, including statistical predictions of the limits of existence and the neutron skin of 208Pb to constrain neutron star properties. Parallel advances also allow first predictions crucial for searches for physics beyond the standard model: neutrinoless double beta decay, dark matter scattering, and symmetry violating moments, with quantifiable uncertainties, for most nuclei relevant for such searches.
Bio:
My research is focused on first-principles calculations of atomic nuclei across all mass regions. I am particularly interested in linking ongoing developments of two and three-nucleon forces rooted in QCD with nuclear structure issues at and beyond the experimental frontiers, such as determining the limits of existence of matter and the evolution of magic numbers towards these limits. Furthermore this work has deep connections to some of the most compelling unanswered questions in beyond-standard-model physics. For instance neutrinoless double beta decay can provide a direct path to knowledge of neutrino masses, WIMP-nucleus scattering may lead to understanding the nature of dark matter, and particular nuclear transitions provide insights into physics at the electroweak scale and beyond. Since these methods are quite general, they can also be broadly extended to other many-body problems such as atomic systems.
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2023-11-30T16:00:002023-11-30T17:00:00The Atomic Nucleus as a Window to New PhysicsEvent Information:
Abstract:
What is the mass of the neutrino? Why is there an abundance of matter over antimatter in our universe? And what is dark matter? Strangely enough, answers might very well lie, yet undiscovered, in impossibly rare nuclear decays, infinitely subtle wobblings of nuclei embedded in radioactive molecules, or the faintest recoils of nuclei colliding with dark matter.
As the role of atomic nuclei in unraveling such fundamental mysteries continues to deepen, first principles quantum simulations, starting from only underlying nuclear and weak forces, are currently undergoing nothing short of a revolution. In this talk I will outline this modern "ab initio" approach to nuclear theory and spotlight several recent milestones, including statistical predictions of the limits of existence and the neutron skin of 208Pb to constrain neutron star properties. Parallel advances also allow first predictions crucial for searches for physics beyond the standard model: neutrinoless double beta decay, dark matter scattering, and symmetry violating moments, with quantifiable uncertainties, for most nuclei relevant for such searches.
Bio:
My research is focused on first-principles calculations of atomic nuclei across all mass regions. I am particularly interested in linking ongoing developments of two and three-nucleon forces rooted in QCD with nuclear structure issues at and beyond the experimental frontiers, such as determining the limits of existence of matter and the evolution of magic numbers towards these limits. Furthermore this work has deep connections to some of the most compelling unanswered questions in beyond-standard-model physics. For instance neutrinoless double beta decay can provide a direct path to knowledge of neutrino masses, WIMP-nucleus scattering may lead to understanding the nature of dark matter, and particular nuclear transitions provide insights into physics at the electroweak scale and beyond. Since these methods are quite general, they can also be broadly extended to other many-body problems such as atomic systems.
Learn More:
See Jason's TRIUMF webpage here
Read his publications here Event Location:
HENN 202
