Amanda Bacon '19: Ghost Particles from Cosmic Collisions

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | When neutron stars collide or black holes merge, they release enormous amounts of energy across the universe. These cosmic collisions produce multiple signals, including gravitational waves, light, and potentially elusive particles known as neutrinos. Each of these messengers carries complementary information about the physics of the event. Detecting and combining these signals is the goal of multi-messenger astronomy.  

In this talk, Amanda Bacon '19 will present her dissertation research on the search for neutrinos in temporal coincidence with compact binary mergers detected by gravitational wave observatories using the SNO+ neutrino detector, located two kilometers underground in Canada. Bacon will also discuss ongoing detector research and development aimed at improving the sensitivity of future neutrino experiments. In particular, Bacon will describe new optical concentrators called Dichroicons, designed to separate different types of light signals and improve our ability to distinguish and study neutrino interactions.