Kaeli Hughes
Ohio State University, OH·Physics
Neutrinos are nearly massless particles that pass through almost everything, so they can carry information straight from the most energetic sources in the Universe. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has already detected neutrinos from space.
- Fields
Physics
Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Topics
neutrino astronomy
ultra-high-energy neutrinos
Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2027
What they work on
- Develop high-fidelity simulations of the radio emission produced when neutrinos and cosmic rays interact in and above Greenland's glacial ice, for use in analyzing RNO-G data.
- Classify the cosmic ray signals recorded by RNO-G into in-air and in-ice categories, aiming to make the first detection of in-ice Askaryan emission, the radio pulse from particle showers inside dense material.
- Apply machine learning to sort RNO-G radio backgrounds much more efficiently, comparing leading time-domain classification techniques and building a reusable library of analysis tools.
- Optimize neutrino-versus-background classifiers by comparing data-driven and simulation-driven cosmic ray studies with neutrino simulations, preparing for a future neutrino search above 10 PeV.
More about the research
Finding neutrinos at even higher energies requires a much larger detector, and measuring both neutrinos and cosmic rays at these extreme energies can answer questions in particle physics and astrophysics. The Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) is built for this. It listens for the brief flash of radio waves made when an extremely energetic neutrino strikes glacial ice. The hardest problem is telling real neutrino signals apart from radio backgrounds, especially signals made by cosmic rays, which are high-energy particles that rain down from space.
Why it matters
Better ways to separate neutrino signals from cosmic ray and other radio backgrounds could let RNO-G detect neutrinos at energies far beyond what current observatories reach. This would give astrophysicists and particle physicists a new view of the most energetic sources in the Universe. It would also test physics at energy scales that cannot be reached on Earth.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ke Fang
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Astronomy & Astrophysics·Early-career
Search for PeVatrons, sources that accelerate protons above 1 PeV, by jointly analyzing high-energy neutrino data from IceCube and gamma-ray data from the HAWC observatory.
Oscar Macias Ramirez
San Francisco State University, CA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Build a fast, accurate parameter regression framework using modern optimization algorithms to reconstruct the particle air showers that ultra-high-energy neutrinos create in the atmosphere.
Joanna Kiryluk
Stony Brook University, NY·Physics
Calibrate the newly installed IceCube Upgrade sensors and develop reconstruction algorithms that rebuild neutrino events, aiming to sharpen low-energy sensitivity and reduce systematic errors in the existing data.
The school
Ohio State University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 882 research doctorates a year.
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