IsoDAR is a novel experiment designed to measure neutrino oscillations through anti-electron-neutrino disappearance, thus providing a definitive search for sterile neutrinos. In order to generate the necessary anti-neutrino flux, a high intensity primary proton beam is needed. In IsoDAR, to overcome space charge issues at injection, H2+ is accelerated and is stripped into protons just before the target. As part of the design, we have put forward a proposal to use an RFQ (Radio Frequency Quadrupole) to axially inject bunched H2+ ions into the driver cyclotron.
We recently received funding to build this RFQ and a small cyclotron to test the injection of H2+ ions. To aid us in this project, we are searching for a graduate student to join us. This project covers a multitude of different areas in physics, engineering, and electronics. It will be partly design work and simulations of the RFQ accelerator/buncher and partly hands-on laboratory work to prepare our existing high current multicusp ion source MIST-1 to be matched to the RFQ.
This project will be performed over your first three years in graduate school and will give you very valuable and unique hardware experience. Once this project is complete, we will add a second analysis topic to complete your thesis studies. This may be in neutrino or accelerator physics with our group, or you can be co-advised, joining a different group for the second analysis.
Some FAQs about grad school and working in our group...
You should think about graduate school at MIT as an apprenticeship. This job is the first step in your long-term career as a particle physicist. If you join us, you should plan to start research right away. You can potentially produce interesting papers as early as in your first year (for example, see this one on IsoDAR with large sections written by graduate student Spencer Axani in his first year.
A strong grounding in experimental particle physics comprises work in three major areas: development for future experiments, phenomenology, and data crunching and analysis on an ongoing experiment. Your initial project on IsoDAR would be your work on development of a future experient. You will also be involved in developing the physics case of IsoDAR, and this will give you experience with phenomenological work. That will teach you to not wait around for theorists to do calculations for you. Your thesis must also include analaysis of a data set that addresses particle physics questions.
This project will form the basis of the hardware and phenomenological sections of your thesis. You will also need to engage in data analysis, which may be through our group or through one of the other LNS groups. This page describes the research opposrtunities at LNS. We will help you find the right group for your analysis.
For the work on IsoDAR, you will be located at MIT and potentially PSI in Switzerland. In your later years, you will want to choose a second area for your thesis. If you stay within our group, this may require you to move to the location of the experiment. For example, for MicroBooNE this is Fermilab and for IceCube this is WIPAC. These are just two examples; you may be based at some other location central to the projects you are working on. This gives you the maximum opportunity to make an impact and be visible, which is essential for your career. Postdocs in our group are posted at the site to which you will move.
Our group has a high publication rate. We see reporting our work as essential to doing good science. During your career as a graduate student, you will publish two types of papers. The first are collaborative papers within your experiment. The second are small-author-list papers on particular topics you develop. Your goal should be to publish at least three small-author-list papers to which you have a direct and essential contribution during your career. To get a sense of what you can do within the group, here are some examples peer-reviewed papers with small authorlists to which senior graduate student Gabriel Collin has contributed:
You will give at least one talk per year at a conference, averaged throughout your career as a grad student. These will involve traveling to many places in the world. These will be spread across the topics you work on in hardware, software, phenomenology and analysis. In fact, you are likely to end up giving more talks per year. We have no shortage of invitations and it is only a matter of money. In many cases there are travel grants for graduate students to attend conferences, and the more of these you find, the more conferences you can attend. We are looking for students who want to present their work and be very visible.
We are a big and very collaborative group. We have a big group meeting two times a year so that each member can present their work to all of the others.
Typically 5 to 6 years. The longest would be 7 years. The shortest is 4 years. This is consistent with the average at MIT, which is 5.6 years. The reduction in the qualifying exam requirements, as of 2015, may shorten this average a bit in the future.
Past students include: Bonnie Fleming (faculty, Yale), Michel Sorel (faculty, Valencia), Dave Schmitz (faculty, Chicago), Georgia Karagiorgi (faculty, Manchester), Kazu Terao (postdoc, Columbia), Christina Ignarra (postdoc, SLAC), Ben Jones (faculty, UT Arlington).
This page was updated October 2016