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Dr Thomas Dealtry

Senior Research Associate

Physics Building

LA1 4YB

Lancaster

Research Interests

My research is focused on experimental neutrino physics. I am interested in measuring neutrino oscillation parameters to high precision, which will lead to knowing why the Universe isn't equal parts matter and anti-matter, in other words, why we exist.


I currently spend most of my time working on the Hyper-K experiment. This is a proposed neutrino and proton decay experiment, due to start taking data in ~2026. In order to access the low-energy physics efficiently, without wasting a lot of storage and computing power on detector noise (expensive!), dedicated low-energy triggers must be designed. I am currently studying using a mix of spatial, temporal, and calorimetric distributions of photo-detector hits to create and assess new triggers.


For my PhD, I worked on the T2K experiment, studying long-baseline neutrino oscillations. T2K produces a beam of neutrinos, predominately of muon neutrino flavour. By measuring the beam at 280 m from the source, uncertainties in the neutrino beam constituants and energy spectrum, and neutrino interaction rates are constrained. Measuring the beam again, at 295 km from the beam source, we see that most of the muon neutrinos have disappeared; some have oscillated into electron neutrinos (which we can see) and others have oscillated into tau neutrinos (invisible in the detector). I measured two parameters that control the muon neutrino disapperance probability, with world-leading precision on θ23.


I am a founding member of the VALOR neutrino fit group, and have, in addition to muon neutrino disappearance at T2K, worked on sensitivity studies for Hyper-K.


I have also worked on the DUNE experiment. DUNE, like Hyper-K, is a proposed neutrino and proton decay experiment due to start taking data in ~2026, complimentary to Hyper-K. The 35-ton detector, a prototype for DUNE, was designed to test a new cryostat design, liquid argon purity, and the detector readout. I worked in the data acquisition group to write the readout software for the GPS clock, external counters and trigger decision unit, and was one of the first scientists to run the detector.

Thesis Title

A precision measurement of νμ disappearance in the T2K experiment

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