Colloquium- “Fundamental and Applied Physics with Reactor Neutrinos” with Prof. Bryce Littlejohn (IIT)
Colloquium
April 30, 2025
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location
238 2SES
Calendar
Download iCal File“Fundamental and Applied Physics with Reactor Neutrinos”
Prof. Bryce Littlejohn
Illinois Institute of Technology
While nuclear reactors may be better known for the free neutrons that they generate, these objects are even more prolific in their production of neutrinos, light uncharged partners of electrons in the Standard Model of particle physics. Current models of neutrino production in nuclear reactors predict detection rates and energy spectra at odds with the existing body of direct reactor neutrino measurements. If these discrepancies are taken seriously, then they indicate a misunderstanding of neutrino production in nuclear reactor cores and/or the fundamental properties of neutrinos. In this talk, I will overview how nuclear reactors work and how they produce neutrinos, and then summarize the theoretical and experimental work that has been recently done to understand the nature of this anomaly. In doing so, I will present recent neutrino measurements performed by the PROSPECT collaboration, which operated a 4 ton segmented lithium-doped liquid scintillator detector covering baseline ranges of ~7-11 meters from the U235-enriched High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I will also highlight exciting new possibilities for detecting reactor neutrinos with qubit-based low-threshold sensing technologies.
Date posted
Jan 24, 2025
Date updated
Apr 17, 2025