Research Focus

My current research is in Particle Astrophysics. I am a member of the CUORE
collaboration that operates a low-temperature bolometer consisting of nearly a ton
of tellurium dioxide crystals operating at 10-20 mK deep underground in the LNGS
laboratory in Italy. The primary function of the detector is to look for neutrino-less
double beta decay. If observed, this would establish demonstrate that the neutrino
is its own antiparticle and help explain the abundance of matter over antimatter in
the universe.
I am also interested in looking for axions, a candidate for dark matter, both in the
CUORE detector and laser-based laboratory experiments. Axions provide a natural
explanation for lack of CP-violation observed in the strong interaction. If axions exist
they should be produced in the Sun and converted to photons in the CUORE
detector. It is also possible to create axions by passing light through a strong
magnetic field, and I am working with other members of the faculty on developing
an experiment to detect the conversion of photons to axions.