Research
I am interested in Particle Astrophysics (using particles, as opposed to light to learn about the universe) and High Energy Astronomy. My thesis research is on the search for point sources of high energy neutrinos with the Super-Kamiokande detector.

• My Resume

• Publications:
  The Search for Astronomical Neutrino Sources with the Super-Kamiokande Detector
  Presented at the Int'l Cosmic Ray Conference, 2003.

• Home page of my thesis advisor,Jeff Wilkes, from the Physics department

• UW Super-K homepage

• Links for the neverending upmu paper

• Pictures from my first trip to Super-K, summer of 2001.

A very brief introduction to my research

Neutrinos are a kind of particle similar to the electron but with no charge and very little mass. They cannot be directly detected but will ocassionally interact with matter, making it possible to detect their presence and some of their properties.

Super-Kamiokande is a neutrino detector near Kamioka, Japan where I go every year for a few weeks of shifts and a couple collaboration meetings. The detector is an enormous tank of water inside a mountain. When a neutrino interacts with one of the water molecules (either an electron from the H's or the O's outer shell or a nucleon within the oxygen) it causes a charged particle to move through the detector at near light speed. This causes a cone of light (Cherenkov radiation) which is then detected by the photomultipliers that line the tank.

Super-K has been taking data since 1996. The particular data set I use is called the upward-going muons (upmus). These are muons created in the rock surrounding the detector by neutrinos that have travelled through the earth. The muons move upwards into the detector where they are detected via their Cherenkov light. The upmus represent the highest energy data set in Super-K.

My research is mining through this data to see if there are any statistically significant point sources of upmus. Most of the upmus are created by cosmic rays interacting in the atmosphere. These upmus carry no astronomical information and represent our primary background. Some of the upmus, however, are created by discrete sources (active galaxies, GRB sources, and X-ray binaries to name some candidate sources) and stream to us directly from these sources. Finding point sources of high energy neutrinos (via the upmus) would initiate the field of neutrino astronomy. Neutrino astronomy shows promise for unlocking the origins of cosmic rays as well as opening a window onto the highest energy phenomena in the universe.