UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Chalk Talk

Walter Pettus, University of Washington

“Backwards is Better: Next-Generation Detectors for Nuclear Physics”

The neutrino continues to conceal many of its fundamental properties, rebuffing the advances of modern physics. When our best isn’t good enough, sometimes creativity in detector design can stimulate the next advance. I will discuss two novel detector geometries that are backwards of the traditional design – an inverted coaxial germanium detector for neutrinoless double beta decay and an inverted radio astronomy antenna array for a beta-decay spectrum endpoint measurement. I will demonstrate the advantages of these novel designs and what they could lead to in future sensitivity in these searches.