Speaker: Charlotte Alison Ward (Univ. of Maryland at College Park) Title: Using The Zwicky Transient Facility and Vera C. Rubin Observatory To Study Black Hole Seeds, Discover High-Z Quasars, and Measure Time Delays From Lensed Supernovae Abstract: Over the last 3 years, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) has demonstrated the potential of wide-field transient surveys for […]

Location: via Zoom Speaker: Phillipp Windischofer (University of Oxford) Title: Detectors for Physics and Physics For Detectors Abstract: Powerful instrumentation has been a key enabler for many discoveries at the forefront of fundamental physics, from gravitational waves to the Higgs boson. In this seminar, I will argue that the converse is also true. I will show that […]

Location: via Zoom Speaker: Chiara Salemi (Massachusettes Institute of Technology) Title: Seeing the Invisible: Search for Low-Mass Axion Dark Matter Abstract: Multiple astrophysical and cosmological observations have shown that the visible matter described by the Standard Model is only a small fraction of the energy in the universe. We believe that there is about five times as […]

Speaker: Jason Sun (CalTech) Title: Understanding the Cosmological Evolution of Galaxies with Intensity Mapping  Abstract: The intensity mapping (IM) technique has been devised as a powerful tool to investigate the formation/evolution of the large scale structure and galaxies, alternative and complementary to the more traditional means relying on galaxy detection. In the high-redshift universe, in particular, synergies of […]

Speaker: Matthew Ho (Carnegie Mellon) Title: Galaxy Cluster Mass Estimation Using Deep Learning  Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss how we use modern deep learning models to infer galaxy cluster masses with high precision, reliable uncertainty, and computational efficiency. I will describe our work in using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to mitigate systematics in the virial […]

Speaker: Lingyuan Ji (John Hopkins) Title: Cosmological Neutrino Perturbations Without The Boltzmann Hierarchy  Abstract: We present a formulation of cosmological perturbation theory where the Boltzmann hierarchies that evolve the neutrino phase-space distributions are replaced by integrals that can be evaluated easily with Fast Fourier transforms. The simultaneous evaluation of these integrals combined with the differential equations for […]

Location: via Zoom Speaker: Julie Pagès (University of Zurich) Title: Different Flavors For Different Particles: Mass Hierarchies, B Anomalies, and Neutrinos  Abstract: Despite many advances in neutrino physics, their masses are still not known and their mass generation remains mysterious. On the other hand, quarks and charged leptons exhibit a very hierarchical mass spectrum which can […]

Location: via Zoom Speaker: Sherry Song (Princeton University) Title: Integration and Analysis of the Balloon-borne Telescope, SPIDER Abstract: Ever since the discovery of cosmic microwave background(CMB) in the year of 1965, its existence has led many ground or space observation programs attempt to unveil its nature, of which the SPIDER program is a balloon-borne telescope designed to […]

Location: via Zoom Speaker: Ralph Massarczyk (LANL) Title: Results from the BEST Sterile Neutrino Oscillation Experiment  Abstract: The Baksan Experiment on Sterile Transitions (BEST) searches for the oscillations between active and sterile neutrinos by exploring the gallium anomaly. Based on the Gallium-Germanium Neutrino Telescope (GGNT) of the SAGE experiment, the BEST setup is comprised of two zones […]

Location: via Zoom Speaker: Chelsea Bartram (U. of Washington) Title: "Combing the Cosmos: A Deep Dive Into the Nature of (Dark) Matter and Fundamental Symmetries" Abstract: One of the most striking mysteries in modern astrophysics manifests itself as an absence of matter needed to form a narrative consistent with our current understanding of the universe. A […]

Abstract: The possibility that the DM sits inside an EW multiplet is still viable in scenarios where Z-mediated elastic scattering of DM with nucleons is absent. Using an effective field theory approach, I will classify all the viable DM EW multiplets and derive the freeze-out predictions on the DM mass. Interestingly, the parameter space of […]

Abstract: Reliable reconstruction of neutrino energy in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and in the Fermilab-based short-baseline oscillation program requires a realistic description of the ground state properties of the argon nucleus. Toward this goal, the E12-14-012 experiment in Jefferson Lab Hall A measured proton knockout from argon induced by scattering of 2.2-GeV electrons, collecting […]

ABSTRACT: The search for dark matter is one of the most important challenges in modern physics. In my presentation I will make a brief introduction to the direct detection of dark matter in underground facilities, followed by the description of the COSINUS experiment. COSINUS aims at the direct detection of dark matter scattering off Na […]

KamLAND-Zen is searching for neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay in Xe-136 using a xenon-loaded liquid scintillator. The KamLAND-Zen detector was recently upgraded with almost double the amount of xenon and an ultra-low radioactivity container. With almost 1-ton-year of Xe-136 exposure, we are exploring the double-beta decay parameter space corresponding to the inverted hierarchy for the first […]

Date: Friday, September 2, 2022 Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location: Conference Room B50-5132 Speaker: Zhelei Xu (MIT) Title: Precision Cosmology: from CMB and 21cm This is a HYBRID Meeting: Please see ZOOM Information Below ABSTRACT: Over the past decades, observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have established the standard cosmological model. In […]