Erica Smith, PhD, Indiana University

Ghost (Particle) Hunters: Finding Neutrinos and Antineutrinos with the NOvA Experiment

The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015 was awarded for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which showed that neutrinos have mass. This discovery kicked off a global effort to better understand neutrinos through studies of their oscillations. We have learned much since then, but there are still many unanswered questions: Which neutrino is the heaviest? Is the framework we use to understand neutrinos complete, or is there more to the story? Can neutrinos explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe? The NOvA experiment aims to answer these questions by sending neutrino and antineutrino beams from Fermilab to a 14 kiloton detector located in northern Minnesota. In this talk, I will introduce neutrinos and the questions surrounding them, discuss the goals and design of the NOvA experiment, and summarize NOvA's most recent results.