Speaker: Kendall Mahn (Michigan State University)
Host: Ignacio Taboada
Title: The Tokai to Kamioka Experiment
Abstract: Neutrinos are a tiny subatomic particle with surprising properties under active study. In particular, neutrinos oscillate, that is, they convert from one type of neutrino to another, is a surprising phenomenon under active study. The origin of neutrino mass is important for astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics, and many open questions surrounding neutrino oscillation exist. The Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) neutrino oscillation experiment sends a beam of muon flavor neutrinos or antineutrinos 295km across Japan. This colloquium will talk about the wonderful world of neutrinos, the surprising landscape of neutrino oscillation, through the lens of recent activities on T2K, and toward the future, global neutrino exploration of neutrinos.
Bio: Kendall Mahn is currently an Associate Professor at MSU in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. She received her B.Sc. degree in Physics from MIT and wrote her undergraduate thesis on extragalactic neutrinos in Super-Kamiokande. Her 2009 Ph.D. dissertation Columbia University was on a search for muon neutrino and antineutrino disappearance due to sterile mixing with the MiniBooNE experiment. As a postdoctoral research fellow at TRIUMF, she served in multiple leadership roles on the Tokai-to-Kamioka neutrino oscillation experiment, including oscillation analysis convener. Mahn is now the T2K International Co-spokesperson and has also held leadership roles on the future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (Calibration Consortium technical lead). She served on the 2023 P5 committee. She was a 2016 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a 2016 Fundamental Physics Breakthrough Prize Laureate.
Event Details
Date/Time:
-
Date:Monday, October 7, 2024 - 3:30pm to 4:30pm
Location:
Marcus Nanotechnology 1116-1118
