William Luszczak (Ohio State)
11:00am Monday Oct 6, 2025
Conference Room
What is Astroparticle Physics, and Why Does it Matter?
One way to think about the field of astroparticle physics is as the process of using astroparticle messengers and techniques to infer unique information about physical systems that are difficult to study via other methods. This talk will explore this perspective with two examples: neutrino astronomy and atmospheric muography.
Neutrino astronomy seeks to observe and characterize the sources of the astrophysical neutrino flux, thereby improving our knowledge of the highest energy cosmic rays and the environments in which they are accelerated. While the existence of the astrophysical neutrino flux has been known since 2013, there have been several notable advances in this area in recent years, including the emergence of extragalactic neutrino source candidates, neutrino emission from the galactic plane, and potentially the observation of the first UHE neutrino. This portion of the talk will review these developments, as well as discuss near-future opportunities and tools that can be used to address new questions that these developments introduce.
Atmospheric muography is a novel technique that attempts to use measured variations in the atmospheric muon flux to infer information about the atmospheric density field over large volumes. Initial simulation studies suggest that this technique may have use in both the study of tornadic mesocyclones as well as more general numerical weather prediction. This portion of the talk will present both these simulation studies as well as progress on pilot experimental efforts, including observations of the cosmic ray flux near a forming tornado.
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