College - Author 1
College of Science and Mathematics
Department - Author 1
Physics Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Physics
Date
3-2025
Primary Advisor
Thomas Gutierrez, College of Science and Mathematics, Physics Department
Abstract/Summary
This senior project is divided into three sections that describe my path and experiences in under graduate research. The first provides an introduction to the field of particle physics and the search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) with the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment, as well as its upgrade, CUPID (CUORE Upgrade with Particle IDentification). The second section details my contributions to these experiments, including my summer working at Yale’s Wright Laboratory on R&D for the CUPID experiment. In this section I describe my work on the experiment’s muon veto system and on light detector development on Yale’s campus. The final section focuses on my attempts to develop a visualization method for Dirac bispinors using the Bloch sphere. In order to achieve this, the relationship between phase and rotations with ordinary two component Weyl spinors must be understood. This exploration is the main objective of this phase of the research. Future work will involve modeling Majorana bispinors. It is my hope that this document will serve as an account of my undergraduate research experience to look back on as I continue in the field.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/physsp/237
