Physics Spring 2024 Colloquium: How can neutrinoless double-beta decay improve our understanding of the Universe?

Lotta Jokiniemi, Postdoctoral researcher at TRIUMF, Canada's Particle Accelerator Centre

When

3 – 4 p.m., Jan. 19, 2024

Where

PAS 201

Abstract: Our knowledge about particles and their interactions is based on the Standard Model of particle physics. Despite being a very successful theory, some physical phenomena cannot be explained by the Standard Model: why is matter dominating antimatter in our Universe? How to explain neutrino masses? Could neutrinos be their own antiparticles? Observing neutrinoless double-beta decay -- in which two neutrons simultaneously transform into two protons, two electrons and no antineutrinos -- could help answer these open questions. 

 The potential to discover new physics from this hypothetical decay drives ambitious searches around the world. Extracting the interesting physics from the experiments however relies on nuclear-theory predictions, which remain a major obstacle. I will discuss recent efforts to improve the theory predictions, and how other nuclear observables can help us better predict the as yet unobserved radioactive decay. 

Bio: 

Lotta Jokiniemi is a postdoctoral researcher at TRIUMF, Canada's particle accelerator centre. Her research focuses on theoretical nuclear physics. She is particularly interested in neutrinoless double-beta decay – a hypothetical radioactive decay that would prove the existence of physics beyond our current knowledge. Currently she is studying muon capture on nuclei with ab initio nuclear techniques to shed light on the as yet unobserved decay. She is also a member of the MONUMENT experimental muon-capture collaboration. She obtained her PhD in physics from the from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2020. Before moving to Canada, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Barcelona, Spain.