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NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
Understanding CP-Violation in Leptons
Date: Monday, February 26th
Time: 3:30 pm
Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
Speaker: Daniel Cherdack, Colorado State University
Abstract: Of the four known fundamental forces the weak force has many unique properties. It is the only standard model force that couples to all known fermions, that has massive exchange bosons, and that induces particle flavor changes. Even more surprising is that the weak force maximally violates parity symmetry, and has even been demonstrated to break charge-parity (CP) symmetry, meaning the weak force interacts differently with matter and anti-matter. This last property may hold the key to understanding several fundamental mysteries of the universe from the three-generation structure of matter, to the missing link between the big bang and the observed universe.

Neutrinos only interact via the weak force which means they are hard to detect, but provide a unique test bed for studying the weak interaction. Over the past few decades it was discovered that neutrinos have mass and change flavors. Studying the way neutrinos change flavors, termed neutrino oscillations, allows us to search for a new source of CP-violation. Measuring and understanding the ways neutrinos interact with nuclear matter is key to studiying neutrino oscillations and has proved to be more difficult than previously thought. The next-generation Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will usher in an era of high precision neutrino physics with the worlds most intense neutrino beam and massive high resolution detectors, increasing the impact of neutrino interaction measurements. I will discuss the theoretical framework we use to describe neutrino oscillations, as well as the difficulties in making neutrino interaction measurements and how they can be mitigated moving forward.
Host: Sridhara Dasu
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