Michelle Dolinski
Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Professor of Physics, Drexel University
Exploring the nature of neutrino mass with nEXO
Location: 1080 Physics Research Building, Smith Seminar Room
Host: Jared Gdanski
Abstract: Tiny, weakly interacting neutrinos are extremely difficult to study in the laboratory, but studying neutrinos can give us a better understanding of the origin and structure of matter in the universe. The discovery of neutrino mass is direct evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. It is an experimentally open question whether neutrinos have distinct antiparticles, and the answer is directly related to the origin of neutrino mass. The observation of neutrinoless double beta decay, a non-Standard Model version of a rare nuclear process, would prove that neutrinos are their own antiparticles. I will discuss the status of the search for neutrinoless double beta decay and the future of the field with a focus on the planned nEXO experiment.
Bio: I have a background in nuclear and particle physics, specializing in experimental neutrino physics. Neutrinos, while difficult to study in the laboratory, may be the key to understanding what lies beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. I received my AB-AM from Harvard University and my PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University before joining the Drexel University Department of Physics in 2012.
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