Christopher Crawford
University of Kentucky, KY·Physics
The Big Bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, yet the visible universe today is made almost entirely of matter. Explaining this imbalance is one of the major open questions in particle physics, nuclear physics and cosmology.
- Fields
Physics
- Topics
nuclear physics
particle physics
fundamental neutron physics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Search for time-reversal symmetry violation by sending polarized neutrons through polarized nuclei, using low-energy neutron–nucleus resonances to amplify the effect, within the NOPTREX collaboration.
- Test NOPTREX experimental hardware at Nagoya University's low-energy neutron test facility after a year of training at the students' home institutions.
- Analyze neutron transmission data collected on the ANNRI beamline at the Japanese Spallation Neutron Source at J-PARC.
More about the research
One possible clue is time-reversal violation: physical processes that behave differently if time could run backward. A newly found source of this effect would point to physics beyond the Standard Model, the current theory of particles and forces.
Why it matters
Finding a new source of time-reversal violation in how neutrons interact with nuclei could reveal physics beyond the Standard Model. It could also help explain why the universe contains matter but almost no antimatter. The program trains undergraduates, with special consideration for women and for Appalachian, first-generation and underrepresented students, in precision neutron measurements and international team science.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Lan Cheng
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Chemistry
Develop relativistic quantum-chemical methods that accurately describe how electron and nuclear motions couple in heavy-atom molecules, a key input for designing laser-cooling and precision-measurement experiments.
Andrea Shindler
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Physics
Calculate the electric dipole moments of protons and neutrons induced by theories beyond the Standard Model, to probe the source of the universe's matter-antimatter asymmetry.
Bhubanjyoti Bhattacharya
Lawrence Technological University, MI·Physics
Use flavor-SU(3) and isospin symmetry, approximate symmetries among light quarks, to identify new observables in hadronic B and D meson decays and predict future measurements.
The school
University of Kentucky: 34 labs on PI Pages, $528M a year on research, 319 research doctorates a year.
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