Cancelled --- Exploring new possibilities at the beta decay frontierCancelled

by Prof. Leendert Hayen (Laboratoire de physique corpusculaire de Caen)

Monday 5 Feb 2024, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Berlin

PH HS 3 (Physics Department)

The Standard Model of particle physics is arguably one of mankind's most successful theories, despite coming up short on questions such as the nature of dark matter, the mass mechanism of neutrinos and the quantization of gravity. Since its inception over half a century ago, precision studies of (nuclear) beta decay observables have been at the forefront of searches Beyond the Standard Model through, e.g., unitarity tests of the quark mixing matrix. Following recent theoretical activity and several high-precision measurements, studies of neutron beta decay are a critical element in resolving current tensions in the global data set and point towards a clean test of exotic interactions in the electroweak sector. In this talk, I will provide an overview of recent theoretical work and discuss the progress of the Nab experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which aims to provide an 0.3% determination of the beta-neutrino angular correlation using cold neutrons. As part of this endeavour, I will detail the state of the art signal simulation of the large, segmented silicon detectors and highlight the potential for Superconducting Tunnel Junctions for precision recoil spectroscopy with SALER.