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Associate Professor of
Physics |
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University of British Columbia |
Office: Hennings 342
Office Hours: Tuesday 1:30-2:30, Friday 10-11 |
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Ph.D |
Department of Physics, University of Chicago |
June 2000 |
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B.A. |
Washington University. Double major in physics |
May 1994 |
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Research:
My research interests span a broad range of experimental high energy physics and particle astrophysics. My primary research is in the field of neutrino oscillations. Since July 2000 I have worked on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), which is a solar neutrino experiment designed to measure both the total flux of neutrinos from the Sun and the flux of electron neutrinos. SNO was the first experiment to directly measure the flavor content of the solar neutrino flux, and to demonstrate conclusively that solar neutrinos undergo flavor transformation, pointing to a final resolution of the long-standing solar neutrino problem. SNO is now working to measure the oscillation effect in detail with increasing precision.
My work on SNO has concentrated on a number of central analysis issues:
signal extraction techniques (I led SNO's signal extraction working group for the pure D2O phase of the experiment.)
systematic uncertainty estimation and calculation, and statistical techniques
day-night analyses and systematic uncertainties (I am currently chair of the day-night analysis working group)
energy spectra measurements
physics interpretation
time variability/periodicity measurements
I am also involved with the T2K and K2K experiments. K2K was the first long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, and concluded data-taking in the fall of 2004. It was designed to look for for neutrino oscillations in a muon neutrino beam sent from the KEK laboratory towards the Super-Kamiokande detector. Recently K2K found evidence for neutrino oscillations in a terrestrial muon neutrino beam at a significance of 4 sigma.
T2K is a followup experiment to K2K at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). T2K will shoot a high-intensity beam of muon neutrinos through the Earth towards the Super-Kamiokande detector. The goals of the T2K experiment are to observe muon neutrinos transforming into electron neutrinos, to do precise measures of neutrino mixing, and to search for CP violation by neutrinos. The Canadian T2K group is designing and building the "tracker" for T2K's 280m near detector. The tracker consists of large volume time projection chambers (TPCs) interleaved with fine-grained detectors (FGDs) made of scintillator bars with wavelength-shifting fibre readout. I am the convener for the FGD detector group. Most of the detector design and construction is happening at UBC and TRIUMF.
As a graduate student I worked in the area of gamma-ray astrophysics with the STACEE experiment. STACEE is a novel ground-based atmospheric Cherenkov telescope built using the steerable mirrors at a solar power test facility. My Ph.D. thesis was the first ground-based measurement of the Crab Nebula's flux and search for pulsed emission from the Crab's pulsar below 200 GeV.
Teaching:
In the fall of 2007 I taught Physics 509, a graduate-level course in statistical data analysis for the physical sciences. In the spring of 2008 I am teaching Physics 101, which is just what it sounds like. Hope to see you there!
Selected Awards:
Sloan Research Fellowship, 2008
Teaching Excellence Award, UBC Science Undergraduate Society, 2007
NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, 2006
Canada Research Chair in Origins, 2004
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1994.
Phi Beta Kappa, 1993
Some Recent Talks I've Given:
Lake Louise Winter Institute 2006:
Lecture
1: Neutrino Physics Part 1: Neutrinos in the Standard Model, and Why
the Standard Model is Wrong
Lecture
2: Neutrino Physics Part 2: Beyond the Nu Standard Model
Plenary Talk at APSNW 2005:
Mapping
the Neutrino Mixing Matrix with Long Baseline Neutrino Experiments
An undergraduate-level talk on the SNO experiment:
Neutrinos: Looking at the Sun From 2 Kilometers
Underground
A colloquium-level talk on long baseline neutrino oscillations:
Going the Distance: Probing
Neutrino Oscillations Across Hundreds of Kilometers with
Accelerator-Based Beams
Selected Publications:
Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation by the K2K Experiment, M.H. Ahn et al., Phys. Rev. D 74, 072003, 2006.
A Search for Neutrinos from the Solar hep Reaction and the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmin et al., Ap.J. 653, 1545, 2006.
Measurement of the quasi-elastic axial vector mass in neutrino-oxygen interactions, R. Grant et al., Phys. Rev. D 74, 052002, 2006.
An Improved Search For nu_mu to nu_e Oscillation In A Long-Baseline Accelerator Experiment, S. Yamamoto et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 181801, 2006.
A Search For Periodicities in the 8B Solar Neutrino Flux Measured By the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmin et al., Phys. Rev. D72 (2005), 052010.
Search For
Coherent Charged Pion Production In Neutrino-Carbon Interactions,
M. Hasegawa et al., Phys. Rev. Lett 95 (2005) 252301.
Electron
Energy Spectra, Fluxes, and Day-Night Asymmetries of 8B
Solar Neutrinos from Measurements with NaCl Dissolved in the
Heavy-Water Detector at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B.
Aharmim et al., Phys. Rev. C72 (2005), 055502.
Evidence for muon
neutrino oscillation in an accelerator-based experiment, E. Aliu
et al, (Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 (2005), 081802).
Electron
Antineutrino Search at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B.
Aharmin et al, submitted to Phys. Rev. D, 2004
Constraints
on Nucleon Decay via ``Invisible'' Modes from the Sudbury Neutrino
Observatory, S.N. Ahmed et al, (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004)
102004)
Measurement
of the Total Active 8B Solar Neutrino Flux at the Sudbury
Neutrino Observatory with Enhanced Neutral Current Sensitivity,
S.N. Ahmed et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004) 181301)
Direct Evidence for Neutrino Flavor Transformation from Neutral-Current Interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 011301)
Measurement of Day and Night Neutrino Energy Spectra at SNO and Constraints on Neutrino Mixing Parameters (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 011302)
Measurement of the rate of nu_e + d --> p + p + e- interactions produced by 8B solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Phys.Rev.Lett. 87 (2001) 071301)
High Energy Gamma-Ray Observations of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar with the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (Ap. J. 547, p. 949, 2001)
The Cosmic Ray Composition Between 1014-eV and 1016-eV (Astropart. Phys. 12:1-17, 1999)
Prototype Test Results of the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE) (NIM A408, p. 468, 1998)
Limits on the Isotropic Diffuse Flux of Ultra-high Energy gamma-radiation (Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, p.1805, 1997.)
You may also click the following link to search SPIRES for more of my publications.
READ
A SOLAR NEUTRINO CARTOON HERE! Yes, the guy in the
cartoon is supposed to be me. Blame my cartoonist wife, who
drew it.
Scott Oser (
July 2, 2008
