• Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars

February 11, 2025 2:00 PM
PAIS 3205

Host:

Huaiyu Duan

Presenter:

Evan Rule (LANL)

Zoom link

Despite its many successes, the standard model of particle physics is incomplete, as it fails to account for the particle nature of dark matter, the origin of neutrino masses, and the observed excess of matter over antimatter. Crucial hints about the missing beyond-standard-model (BSM) physics come not just from high-energy colliders like LHC but also from precision tests of standard-model predictions and from low-energy searches for processes that are forbidden in the standard model. I will discuss two experimental programs where the nucleus is employed as a laboratory to look for new physics: First, searches for the neutrinoless conversion of muons captured onto atomic nuclei provide very strict constraints on any BSM physics that violates the conservation of charged lepton flavor. Second, a discrepancy in the number of observed neutrino captures onto gallium nuclei compared to the theoretical expectation suggests the possibility of additional sterile neutrinos. In both cases, careful consideration of the relevant nuclear physics yields additional information about potential BSM physics.