VIRTUAL
 
Thursday, March 4h  2021
3:45 – 4:45 p.m.
WEBEX
 
Speaker:  Sowjanya Gollapinni
 
P-3: Nuclear and Particle Physics and Applications,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
 
 
“Unlocking the mysteries of neutrinos with the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment”
 
 
 
Abstract: 
Neutrinos provide a promising window to probe a wide range of fundamental physics. Neutrino related discoveries in the last two decades indicate that the answer to the most sought after question of why we live in a matter-dominated universe maybe within reach. Although more than a trillion of neutrinos pass unnoticed through our bodies every second, they still remain largely mysterious. These ghostly little particles are notoriously difficult to detect given how rarely they interact with matter and require building immense and exquisitely sensitive detectors. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab and South Dakota with primary goals of resolving the neutrino mass ordering and measuring the charge-parity violating phase, the indicator of a possible explanation for our matter dominated universe. DUNE will use the promising liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) technology as it presents neutrino interactions with unprecedented detail. However, the path to DUNE is technologically very challenging as it will be the biggest, most intense neutrino experiment ever to be built. After briefly reviewing the current state of neutrino physics and open questions, this talk will describe the DUNE experiment along with the rich physics that it offers and highlight some of the challenges involved in realizing such an experiment.
 
 
Bio:
Sowjanya Gollapinni is a staff scientist in the Physics Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Before joining LANL in Fall 2019, Gollapinni was an Assistant Professor at University of Tennessee, Knoxville where she continues to hold an adjunct position. Gollapinni graduated from Wayne State University in 2012 working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment and was a post-doctoral researcher at Kansas State University starting her work in the field of Neutrino Physics. Gollapinni's current research focuses on studying elusive particles called "Neutrinos" and she is a member of the MicroBooNE, Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program, and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) collaborations. The DUNE experiment is the next generation U.S. flagship experiment and Gollapinni is leading the DUNE effort at LANL. She currently holds several leadership roles across SBN and DUNE including as one of the technical leaders for DUNE. Gollapinni received the prestigious DOE Early Career Award in 2019.