Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills (CCM) is a novel beam dump experiment that can search for a wide variety of well-motivated BSM particles that couple to photons and mesons, and for which I am the analysis coordinator. We can search for Dark Matter, Meson-mediated explanations of short-baseline anomalies, and the hypothetical ATOMKI X17 particle. At present, my personal interest is searching for the QCD Axion!
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is the primary project of the US particle physics community. As this state-of-the-art detector is designed and constructed, we are discovering new methods to search for BSM physics. I have contributed phenomenology to the DUNE physics program at their high energy (~ 500 GeV) and low energy (~ 5 MeV) scales. Checkout Phys. Rev. D 104, 092015 for DUNE’s high energy sensitivity to BSM scenarios with atmospheric neutrinos, and Phys. Rev. D 108, 043005 for DUNE’s sensitivity to the NuX component of galactic supernova neutrinos.
There are many BSM models to test, and writing new simulations for every model and experiment is challenging. I wrote a simulation and weighting framework that makes it easy to inject new BSM scenarios across many experiments called LeptonInjector. We recently used LeptonInjector to explore constraints on new explanations for MiniBooNE anomaly in our paper Phys. Rev. D 107, 055009.
As a graduate student, I participated in the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory. My work was to measure properties of the astrophysical neutrino flux, that produces the highest energy neutrinos ever observed. While IceCube is usually associated with astrophysics, and its neutrino astronomy results, I am excited that my work also opened up opportunities for new BSM searches. A seminar I gave back in 2020 highlights some of this work that is further detailed in Phys. Rev. D 104, 022002.
Collaboration between theorists and experimentalists is of the utmost importance in our field. Strengthening these connections helps us to produce higher quality studies and model tests, build better targeted experiments, and advance the field more quickly. In my work I have maintain strong connections theorists, collaborating on phenomenological analyses, organizing better data releases, and directly involved them in experimental collaborations.
While much of US particle physics funding is focused on large projects, small scale experiments have an important place in the training of early career scientists and in maintaining the agility of our research programs. In a 2023 P5 townhall, I outline the benefits of small scale experiments and argue for their support from US funding agencies. A copy of this short talk can be found here.
We have strong reason to believe there is as of yet unexplained BSM physics, and many observations point to the neutrino sector as a good place to look. I gave a colloquium at MIT-LNS that explores recent thinking on BSM neutrino physics and ways in which we can make connections across a wide range of observable energies. A full copy the talk can be found here. I also covered searches in 100 keV to 100 MeV energy range in a session on BSM connections across the energy scale at the April 2023 APS meeting, a copy of which can be found here.
