Ghost Particles

Wed., Dec. 3, 2014 2:30 p.m. - Wed., Dec. 3, 2014 3:30 p.m.

Location: CL 345

Title: Neutrinos: Ghost Particles of the Universe

Abstract: The neutrino was originally proposed by Pauli as a mass-less, weakly interacting particle that carried away some of the energy in a beta decay reaction, to conserve energy, and allow for the continuous beta energy spectrum. In order to see these ghostly particles physicists have built very large detectors to detect neutrinos from intense natural and man-made sources. With these detectors physicists have learned that neutrinos come in three flavours, have mass, and can oscillate from one flavour to another. This talk will explore some of the interesting physics of these particles, the puzzles that have been discovered, how some of these puzzles have been solved, and what mysteries still remain. Some of the recent results from the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) neutrino experiment will be highlighted.

Speaker: Dr. Blair Jamieson, Department of Physics, University of Winnipeg

Biography: Blair Jamieson completed his B.A.Sc. in Engineering physics at the University of British Columbia in 1997. He returned to UBC for a PhD in experimental particle physics, where he measured the muon decay asymmetry parameter at TRIUMF with the TWIST spectrometer. During his first post-doctoral position he developed a Markov-chain monte-carlo based analysis for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory's third phase measurement of the 8B solar neutrino flux. He then did a second post-doc with the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment, where he was involved in the construction of the large volume 3D tracking time projection chambers for the near detector. He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Winnipeg, and is still involved in the T2K experiment, and has begun working on a neutron electric dipole moment experiment that will be situated at the new Ultra-cold Neutron source being installed at TRIUMF.