Department of Physics

About Walter C. Pettus

Neutrinos serve as an intersectional probe of nuclear, particle, and astro-physics.  My group’s research focuses on understanding the fundamental properties of neutrinos related to their mass.  This pursuit may also elucidate other fundamental physics questions and lead to beyond-the-Standard-Model physics, including - Why is the neutrino’s mass so much lighter than the other fundamental fermions?  Is the neutrino its own antiparticle (a Majorana particle)?  Why do we live in a matter-dominated universe, or why is there something rather than nothing?  What can laboratory measurements tell us about the history and evolution of the universe?

 

To answer these questions, I pursue parallel experimental programs in direct neutrino mass measurement and neutrinoless double beta decay.  Project 8 is a next-generation direct neutrino mass experiment using the tritium endpoint technique.  The Majorana Demonstrator and LEGEND experiments search for neutrinoless double beta decay of ⁷⁶Ge using specialized arrays of high purity germanium detectors.