Nuclear reactors are very bright sources of neutrinos. The radioactive fission products are neutron rich, and beta decay back to the valley of stability while emitting (electron anti-)neutrinos along the way. This was how the neutrino was discovered, and how we verified that neutrino oscillations explained the Solar Neutrino Problem. More recently, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment discovered a new mode of neutrino oscillation, and the PROSPECT experiment is being planned to search for "sterile" neutrinos.

This talk will first review the basics of neutrinos, their detection, neutrino oscillations, and nuclear reactors as neutrino sources. We'll then take a tour of recent results and next steps, including some surprises in what we've learned about the reactor neutrino source itself.
 

Refreshments will be served in CP 179 at 3:15 PM

Abstract: Quantum Field Theory is a universal language to describe a multitude of physical phenomena from elementary particle and condensed matter physics. Often apparent complexity of the described phenomena is attributed to strong coupling in the underlying QFT. Accordingly, understanding strongly-coupled dynamics became a universal theoretical challenge relevant for many areas of contemporary physics. Remarkably, the past decade was characterized by an accelerated development of several original approaches to this problem, leading to a plethora of new results. In my talk I will focus on several non-pertubative methods, most notably holographic correspondence, and describe recent progress and hot research topics. Refreshments will be served in CP 179 at 3:15 PM