Gregory Pawloski

Previous Employment: Research Associate - Stanford University

Current Professional Service: Member of Fermilab's Users' Executive Committee for the 2011-2013 term

My area of expertise is in experimental high energy physics with experience in both hadron collider and neutrino oscillation physics. Most recently, I have been fascinated by the neutrino sector of particle physics. Although the existence of these particles has been known for decades, much is still unknown about them. What is the mass ordering of the neutrinos? Is there CP violation in the lepton sector? Are neutrinos their own antiparticles? Does a seesaw mechanism exist, and are neutrinos responsible for leptogenesis? The answers to these questions could have a profound impact on our fundamental understanding of the physical universe.

Currently, I contribute to both the MINOS and NOvA experimental collaborations. Both experiments study neutrino oscillations and rely on two distantly separated but functionally identical detectors to measure the composition of the neutrino flavors along a beam line produced at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The MINOS experiment uses two tracking calorimeters based on scintillator technology and is currently in the data taking and analysis stage. The NOvA experiment is currently in the construction stage and will consist of two fully active liquid scintillator detectors.
I am currently co-leading the MINOS analysis effort that is searching for the appearance of electron-neutrinos in a muon neutrino beam in order to constrain the least known parameters in the neutrino mixing matrix. We have recently released new results (arXiv:1108.0015) which represent the tightest constraints to date on the mixing angle theta13. We are now focusing our attention on the appearance of electron-antineutrinos to not only further constrain this oscillation parameter but to also search for differences between neutrinos and antineutrinos which would indicate physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.