Neutrinos may hold the answer to why the universe is made of matter and not antimatter—and this fellowship aims to prove it. Our current laws of physics cannot explain why matter dominates the cosmos. The researcher leads work on the T2K and DUNE experiments, which fire neutrinos over long distances and watch them change type—a process called oscillation. Early hints suggest neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate differently, a violation of a fundamental symmetry that could account for the missing antimatter. But the evidence is not yet strong enough. This fellowship tackles two bottlenecks: too little data and too much uncertainty. The team will lead T2K’s largest-ever data analysis, aiming for the first highly significant detection of matter–antimatter differences in neutrinos. They will also combine data from T2K and the NOvA experiment in a joint analysis, producing tighter constraints than either could alone. For the future DUNE experiment, the researcher will build the data-acquisition electronics for a novel detector that measures neutrino interactions more precisely, reducing the uncertainties that currently limit DUNE’s power. If successful, this work will confirm a new source of matter–antimatter asymmetry and, in doing so, explain a fundamental puzzle about the universe’s composition. The electronics developed also have applications in medical imaging, financial trading, and national security.
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Our current understanding of physics does not explain why the universe around us is made overwhelmingly of matter and not antimatter. My work on the T2K and DUNE experiments, which study the oscillations of a type of particle called the neutrino as it travels long distances, has seen hints of a new type of matter-antimatter difference which has the potential to provide an explanation for the matter dominated universe. Larger datasets and smaller uncertainties are necessary to confirm these differences. My fellowship addresses both of these issues. During the fellowship, the currently running long distance neutrino oscillation experiments, T2K and NOvA, will collect their largest neutrino-oscillation datasets to date. My team will lead analysis of T2K’s data, for the first time, being sensitive enough to provide highly significant evidence for matter-antimatter differences in neutrinos. Mostly T2K and NOvA analyse their data separately. This separation means that information that each experiment has that would improve the other’s analysis is ignored. I led the first joint analysis of T2K and NOvA data together. During this fellowship I will work with collaborators in the NOvA experiment to incorporate developments in both standalone analyses to produce a second T2K+NOvA analysis. The result will be a more precise constraint on matter-antimatter differences in the neutrino sector than either experiment could produce alone, maximising the impact of these UK government funded experiments. The billion-dollar scale DUNE experiment, which is scheduled to start taking data in the early 2030s, promises even larger neutrino oscillation datasets than those from T2K and NOvA. However, our current understanding of neutrino interactions with our detector materials is not good enough to take advantage of these datasets. I will develop part of a High-Pressure gas Time Projection Chamber (HPgTPC) for DUNE that will measure neutrino interactions of a type inaccessible to previous detectors. The resulting reduction in our uncertainties on neutrino-matter interactions will give DUNE the capability to definitively observe and fully characterise the neutrino matter-antimatter asymmetry. The subsystem that this fellowship will allow me to lead the construction of is the HPgTPC’s data acquisition (DAQ) electronics. DAQ electronics allow the HPgTPC to record the neutrino interactions of interest. To do this, I will use high-speed FPGA electronics which have wide applicability both within STFC’s science area and more widely including the medical sector, fintech and national security. Furthermore, UK companies will be able to manufacture parts of the system, furthering the UK’s high-tech sector I will also pioneer joint analyses of data from DUNE and its competitor HK. This work will use my leading position in DUNE and the expertise I have gained from carrying out the world’s first joint analysis of multiple long-baseline neutrino experiments, to deliver the ultimate precision on matter-antimatter differences in the lepton sector into the 2040s.
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