Janet Conrad
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA·Physics
Neutrinos are nearly massless particles that rarely interact with matter, which makes them hard to study. IsoDAR is a planned experiment at Yemilab in South Korea, where caverns have already been built.
- Fields
Physics
Engineering
- Topics
neutrino physics
IsoDAR
cyclotron
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Develop beam diagnostics, instruments that measure the particle beam, for a full-scale central-region prototype of the high-current IsoDAR cyclotron.
- Establish machine-learning feedback to automatically tune the IsoDAR cyclotron prototype's beam.
- Develop a new physics case for IsoDAR that uses beam timing, through data analysis and phenomenology (connecting theory to measurable signals).
- Modify the cyclotron into a D+ design that accelerates deuterons, aimed at future medical isotope production such as actinium-225.
More about the research
It will be the first high-intensity, proton-driven particle source to operate underground next to a detector weighing several thousand tons. The source will produce unprecedented numbers of neutrinos, neutrons and photons. These will allow precision measurements of inverse beta decay, a reaction in which an antineutrino hits a proton, and of antineutrino elastic scattering. They will also enable searches for rare particles. At its heart is a cyclotron, a circular particle accelerator, designed to deliver about ten times more current than commercial machines.
Why it matters
Beyond neutrino physics, a deuteron-accelerating version of the IsoDAR cyclotron could help produce medical isotopes. One example is actinium-225, which is in short supply. Such a machine could also be used to test materials for fusion energy. The project trains early-career scientists in accelerator instrumentation, machine learning and isotope production.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Walter Pettus
Indiana University, IN·Physics
Scale Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES), which measures electron energy from emitted radio waves, toward a multi-cubic-meter tritium experiment by leading control systems for Project 8 demonstrator apparatuses.
Michael King
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Biomedical Engineering
Create Monte Carlo simulations of Ac-225 PSMA SPECT/CT imaging in targeted alpha therapy to jointly optimize collimator design and physics-based image reconstruction for tumor detection and quantification.
Erin Peters
University of Kentucky, KY·Physics
Study nuclear structure relevant to neutrinoless double-beta decay using inelastic scattering of fast, single-energy neutrons from the University of Kentucky accelerator and measuring the emitted gamma rays.
The school
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 25 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 692 research doctorates a year.
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