Julian Munoz Probing Dark Matter with Radio Surveys A significant part of dark matter could be compact, in particular in the form of primordial black holes. I will review the signatures of primordial black holes, both in the form of gravitational-wave events and as gravitational lenses of fast radio bursts. Alternatively, a WIMP-y dark-matter component […]

Neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments play a major role in the search for lepton number violation and the Majorana nature of the neutrino mass. The MAJORANA Collaboration has assembled two modules of high-purity Ge detectors to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76-Ge at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. One of the […]

The next generation of large scale structure surveys will map out the universe in unprecedented detail. Transformative techniques in computational astrophysics are emerging as the optimal ways to extract information from these surveys, with realistic and routine full sky simulations finally within reach. I will describe a new pipeline for efficiently simulating high resolution maps […]

Once data has been collected, it is desirable to be able to quickly transform that data into statements about the values and corresponding uncertainties -- the "confidence limits" or "credible limits" -- of the physical parameters underlying the data.  Traditionally, this problem is treated probabilistically. This process can be time consuming, as enough samples need […]

Recent progress on the next generation double beta decay experiment with low-temperature macro-calorimeters (CUPID) The Cuore Upgrade with Particle IDentification, or CUPID, is a proposed next generation double-beta decay experiment that requires a low-threshold optical photon light detector. The use of a secondary bolometer as a light detector is being investigated since, $\alpha$-particles (the main […]

The OLYMPUS experiment measured the two-photon exchange contribution to elastic electron-proton scattering, which is thought to be the most likely candidate to resolve the discrepancy observed between polarized and unpolarized measurements of the proton electric-to-magnetic form factor ratio. To deterimine the two-photon exchange contribtuion, OLYMPUS measured the positron-proton to electron-proton elastic scattering cross section ratio […]

Neutrinos are the only standard model particles of unknown mass. Thus, measuring their mass is one of the leading goals in fundamental physics. Cosmology currently provides the tightest bounds on the sum of the neutrino masses and the possibility that next generation experiments can provide a detection looks promising. Then, further questions would have to […]

Bio: Sandy Miarecki is a retired Air Force test pilot, PhD graduate of the University of California-Berkeley, and an affiliate member of LBL after completing her dissertation research at LBL.  She is currently an assistant professor of physics at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The IceCube Detector at the South Pole was […]

A large number of astrophysical and cosmological observations at different scales supports the existence of a cold dark matter component in the Universe. At the Universe scale, this component is uniformly distributed and represents roughly 26% of the total mass-energy density of the Universe. The Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP), a generic particle, is one […]

One of the most exciting areas of research in cosmology is the effort to extract information about fundamental physics from observations of the universe on large scales.  With the advent of increasingly large cosmological datasets (and correspondingly small statistical uncertainties), future progress in the field will fundamentally be determined by our ability to understand and […]