Ke Fang
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Astronomy & Astrophysics·Early-career
Cosmic rays are charged particles, mostly protons, helium and heavier atomic nuclei, that race through space at nearly the speed of light. Some carry more than 1 peta-electronvolt (PeV) of energy, far beyond what any human-made accelerator can reach.
- Fields
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics
- Topics
cosmic rays
PeVatrons
particle astrophysics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- 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.
- Develop an efficient joint-analysis framework and new source-finding algorithms that combine observations from IceCube and HAWC.
- Numerically simulate how cosmic-ray particles travel and interact in cosmic environments to improve theoretical models of cosmic-ray sources and the interpretation of observations.
More about the research
Which objects in the universe can accelerate protons to such energies, sources called PeVatrons, is one of the most basic open questions in particle astrophysics. Charged cosmic rays are bent by magnetic fields on their way to Earth, so they do not point back to where they came from. This project instead combines two other messengers, gamma rays and neutrinos, with theory to track down these sources.
Why it matters
The work could help identify the astrophysical objects that accelerate particles to energies above a PeV, a long-standing puzzle about the origin of cosmic rays. It also adds joint gamma-ray and neutrino analysis methods and better source models that other researchers can use to interpret multi-messenger observations.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Kieda
University of Utah, UT·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Combine VERITAS and HAWC gamma-ray observations with satellite, neutrino and gravitational-wave alerts to study high-energy sources and neutrino emitters such as PeVatrons.
Kaeli Hughes
Ohio State University, OH·Physics
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.
Ignacio Taboada
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Develop calibrations and reconstruction algorithms for the new IceCube Upgrade sensors to improve low-energy sensitivity and reduce systematic errors across IceCube's existing neutrino dataset.
The school
University of Wisconsin-Madison: 91 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 854 research doctorates a year.
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