Mark Ross-Lonergan
Columbia University, NY·Physics
Two strong hints that our best theory of particles, the Standard Model, is incomplete are the tiny masses of neutrinos and the existence of dark matter, the invisible material that makes up most matter in the universe. Neutrinos are the lightest and most elusive known particles.
- Fields
Physics
- Topics
neutrino physics
dark sector
dark matter
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Analyze the full MicroBooNE dataset, combining several reconstruction methods and about twenty final-state patterns, to test whether a single-photon excess explains the MiniBooNE anomaly through new physics or the Standard Model.
- Exploit the high neutrino flux at the SBND near detector to search for dark-sector upscattering, in which neutrinos produce short-lived heavy neutral particles inside the detector.
- Make a high-statistics measurement of neutral-current π⁰ production in SBND, the dominant background for dark-sector upscattering searches.
- Develop the PROfit statistical framework for computationally intensive sensitivity and systematic-uncertainty analyses across SBND, MicroBooNE and ICARUS.
More about the research
They might act as a 'portal' linking ordinary matter to a hidden 'dark sector' of new particles and forces. This project uses neutrino experiments at Fermilab to search for that link.
Why it matters
This is fundamental physics. The work aims to identify the origin of the long-standing MiniBooNE anomaly or rule out its last remaining explanation. It also aims to open new sensitivity to dark-sector models, which could clarify whether neutrino mass and dark matter are connected. The data-analysis and machine-learning skills involved are transferable to medical imaging and artificial intelligence.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Doojin Kim
University of South Dakota, SD·Physics
Develop theory frameworks for MeV-scale dark-sector physics at beam neutrino experiments, including light Kaluza-Klein gravitons from extra dimensions and rare three-body charged-meson decays that could produce light mediators.
John Parsons
Columbia University, NY·Physics
Measure properties of the Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider to probe fundamental particles and possible links to dark energy.
Manoj Kaplinghat
University of California-Irvine, CA·Physics
Build and test models of physics beyond the Standard Model, the current theory of particles and forces, and work out what signals these extensions would produce in particle accelerator (collider) experiments.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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