All material things appear to be made of elementary particles that are held together by fundamental forces. But what are their exact properties? How do they affect how our universe looks and changes? And are there particles and forces that we don't know of yet?
Questions with cosmic implications like these drive many of the scientific efforts at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Three distinguished particle physicists have joined the lab over the past months to pursue research on two particularly mysterious forms of matter: neutrinos and dark matter.
Neutrinos, which are abundantly produced in nuclear reactions, are among the most common types of particles in the universe. Although they were discovered 60 years ago, their basic properties puzzle scientists to this date.
Alexander Friedland, a senior staff scientist in SLAC's Elementary Particle Physics Theory Group, works on techniques that pave the way for future analyses of neutrino bursts from supernovae. Studying the details of these powerful star explosions helps scientists understand how dying stars spit out chemical elements into deep space.
Natalia Toro and Philip Schuster, associate professors of particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC, look for something even more enigmatic. They develop ideas for experiments that search for hidden particles and forces linked to dark matter, an invisible form of matter that is five times more prevalent than ordinary matter.
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