Probing Neutrino Physics
MIT Researcher Helps Expand Ricochet Neutrino Experiment to Eighteen Detectors
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MIT doctoral researcher Faith Reyes is helping the international Ricochet experiment in Grenoble, France, study coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, a rare interaction that could sharpen understanding of neutrinos and test the limits of the Standard Model. After a planned MIT project fell behind schedule, Reyes shifted to Ricochet, where she began by learning detector operations and maintenance. As the experiment grew from two detectors to 18, she and a colleague developed software to automate monitoring and data analysis, and she took on a growing role guiding the collaboration’s work. Reyes also supports undergraduate physics students as a tutor and teaching assistant.
Key Points
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Ricochet must measure the tiny recoil energy transferred to a nucleus while distinguishing that signal from background noise, a key experimental challenge in detecting coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering.
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The measurements could bear on unresolved questions that the Standard Model does not answer, including the origin of neutrino mass and the nature of dark matter.
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Reyes said the Standard Model is “extremely accurate and describes most of everything that we see,” but “it’s not complete.”
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Reyes described the trust she earned from collaborators as meaningful: “It felt like my collaborators trusted me, and I had something of value to give to the collaboration.”
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