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Graduate student’s BADASS code has astronomical benefits

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 23:55:09 +0000

Graduate student’s BADASS code has astronomical benefits Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/16/2020 - 15:55 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR December 16, 2020

An astro-statistics course University of California, Riverside, graduate student Remington O. Sexton took three years ago taught him techniques that led him to develop free, open-source code benefiting astronomers everywhere.

Called BADASS, which stands for Bayesian AGN Decomposition Analysis for SDSS Spectra, the code in its current form fits astronomical spectra of active galactic nuclei, or AGNs, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, or SDSS, using advanced statistical methods.

Remington Sexton earned his doctoral degree earlier this year.

“The code is unique in that it finally provides a way for astronomers to fit the stellar motions of stars simultaneously with many other components, is written in the popular programming language Python, and is versatile enough to fit not just AGNs, but normal galaxies as well,” said Sexton, who earned his doctoral degree in physics and astronomy in September 2020.

Sexton’s breakthrough work is published in the January 2021 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

AGN is the general term used to describe a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy that is actively accreting material, usually in the form of interstellar gas, using its strong gravitational influence. AGNs are common; but not all galaxies have them at their centers. Each galaxy’s center is believed, however, to have a supermassive black hole. Normal galaxies, such as the Milky Way, lack actively accreting black holes.

Different celestial objects produce different types of spectra. An object’s spectrum helps astronomers identify what type of object it is. Light from a celestial body with no intervening matter produces a spectrum that appears as a continuum. A challenge in astronomy has been separating the contribution of stellar light and the contribution of AGN light from each other in the galaxy’s main spectral continuum.

“The challenge is separating the two from each other, that is, isolating the stellar component from the AGN light contribution,” Sexton said. “Aside from being versatile enough to fit many kinds of astronomical objects, which many codes aren't designed for, BADASS simultaneously fits stellar kinematics simultaneously with all other components in the spectra. Codes in the past used a two-step process of fitting stellar kinematics and other components independently. But this could introduce biases or uncertainties. The best way to perform spectral decomposition is to fit all components simultaneously. This is what BADASS does.”

Sexton designed BADASS also to detect and fit ionized gas outflows typically seen in optical emission line features and is the first to incorporate a set of specific criteria for their detection. Ionized gas outflow refers to the bulk motion of interstellar gas capable of escaping the gravitational influence of its host galaxy and the blackhole.

“Ionized gas outflows have become a hot topic in the past decade and could explain how supermassive black holes and galaxies co-evolve with each other over cosmic time,” said coauthor Gabriela Canalizo, a professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside and Sexton’s doctoral advisor.

Currently, BADASS is only being used to fit AGN objects. Sexton emphasized, however, that the code is versatile, easy to use, and can fit other objects such as normal galaxies.

“BADASS can be used for fitting normal non-AGN host galaxies, and even individual stars,” he said. “Currently, its usage is strictly for astronomical spectra, but the statistical framework BADASS is built on can be generalized for any kind of spectroscopy. That makes it extraordinarily versatile and useful.”

One motivation Sexton had to develop BADASS was to phase out the need for proprietary software — IDL programming language — and replace it with a free open-source language such as Python.

“Now anyone can download BADASS for free and use it,” he said. “It is ready to be run as long as you can install Python and all the packages it requires. Because this code can also detect and fit ionized gas outflows in optical spectra, it could greatly assist in the heightened interest in astronomy now in studying ionized gas outflows by creating larger samples for analysis.”

Sexton and Canalizo were joined in the research by William Matzko of George Mason University in Virginia; Nicholas Darden of UCR; and Varoujan Gorjian of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The research was supported partially by the National Science Foundation and the NASA MIRO program through the Fellowships and Internships for Extremely Large Data Sets (FIELDS) in the form of a graduate student fellowship.

The research paper is titled, “Bayesian AGN Decomposition Analysis for SDSS spectra: a correlation analysis of [O III] λ5007 outflow kinematics with AGN and host galaxy properties.”

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New multicampus consortium to study assembly of coronaviruses

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:25:43 +0000

New multicampus consortium to study assembly of coronaviruses Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/09/2020 - 10:25 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR December 09, 2020

The University of California, Riverside, is the recipient of a 2021 UC Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives, or MRPI, award allowing the campus to put together a UC Coronavirus Assembly Research Consortium.

“This consortium will aim to understand the physical principles underlying the formation of coronaviruses,” said Roya Zandi, a professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside and the principal investigator of the four-year project that received funding of more than $1.75 million. “We will also explore the impact of some drugs on the assembly process.”

Roya Zandi. (UCR/I. Pittalwala)

Zandi is an expert on the physics and biophysics principles of virus formation. Her lab researches the statistical mechanics of virus assembly, the dynamics of the self-assembly process, and how various mechanisms can influence the stability of the viral structure.

Currently, the mechanisms involved in the replication and assembly pathways of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, are unclear. While in vitro experiments and computer simulations of viruses have improved scientists’ understanding of the viruses’ formation and how to combat them, there have been no similar studies aimed at understanding coronavirus assembly.

“With the goal of determining ways to disrupt viral assembly, this consortium will investigate the roles of structural proteins in SARS-CoV-2 assembly using an integrated, multidisciplinary approach across multiple scales and environments,” Zandi said.

UCR will be joined by UC Merced and UC Davis in the consortium. The three campuses will work together to understand the factors contributing to the formation of SARS-COV-2.

At UCR, scientists will use atomic force microscopy, or AFM, a powerful technique that can image almost any type of surface, along with super-resolution and confocal microscopy to study the assembly of SARS-COV-2 within cell-like vesicles.

Zandi explained that UCR’s single-molecule investigations will be complemented with UC Merced studies that explore the bulk properties of cell membranes interacting with viral proteins.

UCR scientists, she added, will perform in vitro studies as well as in vivo microscopy studies of virus-like particle assembly within living cell lines and tissue culture. Virus-like particles are supramolecular protein assemblies that may have applications in synthetic biology and medicine.

To interpret the experimental data and provide predictions of potential therapeutic targets for suppressing viral self-assembly, the consortium will use all-atom molecular dynamics simulations developed at UC Davis and coarse-grained simulations and analytical theories developed at UCR and UC Merced to study the multimerization — the process of assembling aggregates of multiple molecules — of structural proteins, the interaction of membranes with proteins, and protein-protein interactions resulting in the formation of virus.

Co-principal investigators at UCR are Umar Mohideen, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy; Marcus Kaul, an associate professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine; and Thomas Kuhlman, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. Mohideen will study the assembly pathway and interaction mechanisms between the viral proteins and RNA using AFM single-molecule investigations. Kaul and Kuhlman will design in vivo experiments and will also study the effects of altering the intracellular pH on the assembly of virus-like particles.

Zandi said the consortium’s quantitative studies and its focus on the close integration of theory and experiment will distinguish its work from other similar biological and biochemical studies.

“Our strength and uniqueness are in the use of multidisciplinary and synergistic basic science approaches to identify critical steps and components of viral assembly, which will open avenues to search for drugs that can potentially disrupt the critical assembly steps,” she said. “While we will spend the next four years understanding the formation of coronaviruses and, in particular, SARS-CoV-2, our ultimate goal is to develop a multicampus institute, based on the principles of physical virology, that will establish UC’s leadership in this emerging field.”

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New method identifies adaptive mutations in complex evolving populations

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 16:55:28 +0000

New method identifies adaptive mutations in complex evolving populations Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/30/2020 - 08:55 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR November 30, 2020

A team co-led by a scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has developed a method to study how HIV mutates to escape the immune system in multiple individuals, which could inform HIV vaccine design.

HIV, which can lead to AIDS, evolves rapidly and attacks the body’s immune system. Genetic mutations in the virus can prevent it from being eliminated by the immune system. While there is no effective cure for the virus currently available, it can be controlled with medication.

John P. Barton. (UCR/Barton lab)

“Understanding the genetic drivers of disease is important in the biomedical sciences,” said John P. Barton, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UCR, who co-led the study with Matthew R. McKay, a professor of electronic and computer engineering and chemical and biological engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “Being able to identify genomic rearrangements is key to understanding how illnesses occur and how to treat them.”

Barton explained that notable examples of genetic drivers of disease include mutations that allow viruses to escape from immune control, while others confer drug resistance to bacteria.

“It can be difficult, however, to differentiate between real, adaptive mutations and random genetic variation,” he added. “The new method we developed allows us to identify such mutations in complex evolving populations.”

Evolutionary history, he added, contains information about which mutations affect survival and which simply reflect random variation.

“However, it is computationally difficult to extract this information from data,” he said. “We used methods from statistical physics to overcome this computational challenge. Our method can be applied generally to evolving populations and is not limited to HIV.”

McKay explained the new method provides a means to efficiently infer selection from observations of complex evolutionary histories.

“It enables us to sort out which genetic changes provide an evolutionary advantage from those that offer no advantage or have a deleterious effect,” he said. “The method is quite general and could be potentially used to study diverse evolutionary processes, such as the evolution of drug resistance of pathogens and the evolution of cancers. The accuracy and high efficiency of our approach enable the analysis of selection in complex evolutionary systems that were beyond the reach of existing methods.”

Some well-known diseases that have known genetic causes are cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, colorblindness, and Huntington’s disease.

“In the case of HIV, an understanding of the genetic mutations that lead to HIV resistance could help researchers determine the most appropriate treatment for patients,” Barton said. “Our approach isn't limited to HIV, but there are a few reasons why we focused on HIV as a test system. HIV is highly mutable and genetically diverse. It also mutates within humans to escape from the immune system. Understanding the details of how HIV evolves could therefore help to develop better treatments against the virus.”

Barton was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Study results appear in Nature Biotechnology. The title of the research paper is “MPL resolves genetic linkage in fitness inference from complex evolutionary histories.”

Barton and McKay were joined in the study by Muhammad Saqib Sohail and Raymond H. Y. Louie of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of New South Wales.

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Riverside Unified School District honors astronomer for his contributions to K-12 STEM education

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 21:54:47 +0000

Riverside Unified School District honors astronomer for his contributions to K-12 STEM education Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/21/2020 - 14:54 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR October 21, 2020

For his numerous contributions to education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, Bahram Mobasher, a professor of physics and observational astronomy at UC Riverside, has been named a recipient of the Riverside Unified School District Board of Education Presidential Award for the year 2020.

The Riverside Unified School District, or RUSD, educates nearly 42,000 students across 50 schools in Riverside County. The award is given annually by the RUSD Board of Education. Past recipients include Gordon Bourns and Cindy Roth.

Bahram Mobasher

“Given the shortage of STEM-literate individuals in today's workforce, it is imperative to have a strong STEM education program at our schools,” Mobasher said. “Our program at UCR introduces students to state-of-the-art science and technology and gets them excited about STEM fields. I am deeply honored to receive this award from the district.”

For several years, Mobasher has been instrumental in enhancing K-12 students’ experiences in STEM fields by establishing new educational programs. Through his NASA grants, he developed a STEM education and training program covering high school to graduate school and beyond. He created a summer academy program for high school students to take college courses at UCR, developed training programs for high school teachers, and sponsored many UCR students for internships at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and graduate research at several UCR departments. These programs have supported more than 400 students, many from underrepresented minority groups, over the last few years.

“We reach around 6,000 K-12 students every year through our STEM outreach efforts in Southern California, resulting in students’ participation in hands-on science and engineering activities,” said Xinnan Du, director of education and public outreach at the NASA MIRO FIELDS program at UCR and a postdoctoral scholar who works with Mobasher. “We also host telescope sky nights and public lectures focused on NASA-related topics.”

The joint recipient of the 2020 Riverside Unified School District Board of Education Presidential Award is virologist Azin Mobasher, former PTSA president of the Riverside STEM Academy.

“The commitment of the Mobashers to igniting students’ interest in STEM subjects is simply extraordinary and the entire district is grateful for their dedication to education,” said Kathy Allavie, president of the RUSD Board of Education.

A presentation of the awards will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22, and can be watched at riversideunified.org.

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Physicist joins NSF-funded team focused on accelerating quantum computing research

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:12:18 +0000

Physicist joins NSF-funded team focused on accelerating quantum computing research Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/21/2020 - 12:12 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR October 21, 2020

Peng Wei, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside, is a co-principal investigator and theme lead on a grant from the National Science Foundation, or NSF, supported by the NSF Convergence Accelerator — a new model of innovation for the government, industry, and academia.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Wei worked before coming to UCR in 2016, is leading the one-year research project.

Peng Wei

Integrating multidisciplinary research, human-centered design, and team science, the NSF Convergence Accelerator program also leverages the insights of experts with wide-ranging industry experience. It aims to solve compelling societal or scientific problems and addresses challenges of national importance to produce deliverables of value to society. Designed to transition basic research and discovery into practice, this year’s program focuses on quantum technology and artificial intelligence.

“Our project, titled ‘Synergistic thrusts towards practical topological quantum computing,’ emphasizes the program’s quantum technology focus,” Wei said. “We are currently in Phase I of the NSF Convergence Accelerator program, which involves the development of a highly synergistic team focusing on human-centered design and initial prototyping for practical quantum computing. In just nine months, Phase I planning will become Phase II action.”

Specifically, the project will integrate Majorana zero modes, or MZMs, into superconducting qubit architectures to advance their application to quantum computing. A qubit is the basic unit of quantum computing. MZMs are novel particles that could be used to construct an exotic qubit, or a topological qubit, whose qubit quantum state is “fault-tolerant,” which means it is protected against sources of decoherence.

“Although the coherence time — or lifetime — for superconducting qubits has improved by more than five orders of magnitude in the past two decades, achieving a fault-tolerant or error-free qubit still requires significant improvement to become practical,” Wei said. “In this project, we intend to explore alternative approaches that promise to address issues of decoherence and quantum error using new materials known as topological superconductors.”

A topological superconductor, or TSC, is the material that hosts MZMs. Wei, who graduated from UCR in 2011 will study new TSC materials and deliver MZM-pair-hosting prototype nano devices for quantum information processing.

“Our project is built solidly on our recent observation of a pair of MZMs, which is the basic element of a topological qubit,” Wei said. “One of our goals is to building topological qubits using pairs of MZMs and scale them up into qubit architectures, that is, use new TSC materials and MZMs for superconducting quantum computing.”

Wei noted the project is high risk, but it also has the potential for a high payoff. The challenges are twofold. The first is the development of more robust TSC materials that allow the operation of a topological qubit at a much higher temperature compared to conventional superconducting qubits. The second is to convert such materials into scalable nano devices and operate the qubit quantum state using novel means.

“Manipulating the quantum information embedded in pairs of MZMs is challenging,” Peng said. “But the uniqueness of our material and our properly designed approach provide us with solid ground to stand on when taking on this challenge.”

Other researchers working with Wei on the project are grant principal investigator Jagadeesh Moodera, Patrick Lee, Liang Fu, and William Oliver of MIT.

About a third of the $785,000 grant funding will come to UCR.

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Physics and Astronomy joins elite group promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 20:48:46 +0000

Physics and Astronomy joins elite group promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/19/2020 - 13:48 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR October 19, 2020

Faculty from the UCR Department of Physics and Astronomy has been accepted to the American Physical Society Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance, or APS-IDEA, joining a consortium of physics departments, laboratories, and research collaborations committed to improving equity, diversity, and inclusion.

APS-IDEA, a network of nearly 100 institutions worldwide, addresses long-standing, systemic barriers that have led to underrepresentation of marginalized groups in physics.

According to the American Institute of Physics National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Undergraduate Physics & Astronomy, less than 4% of bachelor’s degrees in physics are awarded to African Americans and only 21% are awarded to women. The underrepresentation of these and other excluded groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community and ethnic minorities, has been attributed to a complex system of discrimination, harassment, and lack of a supportive environment.

According to Flip Tanedo, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and recent recipient of a Commitment to Graduate Diversity Award, diversity in the UCR Department of Physics and Astronomy undergraduate enrollment comes largely from the Latino/a community.

“Many Latina undergraduate students are also first-generation college students,” said Tanedo, who was a first-generation university student and is the first Filipino-American faculty member of particle physics. “Physics is not a common major among first-generation students; so this is quite encouraging and suggests we are doing quite well in comparison to several other institutions.”

Of the 164 undergraduate students accepted into the department in Fall 2019, 80 identified as Chicano/Latino; 35 as Asian; 32 as white; eight as two or more races; six as international; two as Black/African American; and one as American Indian/Alaskan Native. Nearly 80% identified as male; the rest as female. Nearly 55% identified as first-generation, 40% were low-income, and more than 48% received Pell grants. Among female students, nearly 62% were first-generation.

The UCR team that made the application to APS-IDEA includes faculty, staff, and students in the department as well as Mariam Lam, vice chancellor and chief diversity officer.

Tanedo said the APS-IDEA effort was led by physics students, especially those from the relatively new Physics Organization for Womxn and the Under-Represented.

“When the APS IDEA leadership welcomed our team, they specifically were impressed by our past work and the fact that the efforts are student-led," he said.

In its response, APS-IDEA noted that “the review committee was unanimous in its opinion that this team should be accepted into the network. The committee was impressed with the department’s history of EDI efforts and the fact that the main driver of this application was its graduate students. The committee sees this as an opportunity for cultural change to occur in the department led both from the grass-roots level and the leadership.”

Within the UC system, physics departments at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Cruz have also been accepted into APS-IDEA.

The American Physical Society, representing more than 55,000 members, is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse knowledge of physics.

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UCR hosts Mercury transit viewing

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 19:14:11 +0000

UCR hosts Mercury transit viewing Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/28/2020 - 12:14 More Outreach articles University Communications | Inside UCR November 12, 2019

INSIDE UCR -- More than 200 people came out to the UCR Baseball complex Monday morning, Nov. 11, to watch Mercury pass in front of the sun — a rare occurrence that happens around 13 times every 100 years.

The public viewing was organized by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and it took place from 8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. while the planet was visible as a black dot moving across the sun. The next Mercury transit will not be visible from Earth until 2032.

Observers watched through telescopes positioned at the softball fields. The event also offered activities for children who drew and painted planets and stars at a table.

Camp Highlander co-sponsored the viewing which also included participation from the Astronomy Club, the Photonics Society, and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

UC Riverside's Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted a viewing of Mercury in transit on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019 (UC Riverside Photonics Society)

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CNAS meets Living the Promise campaign goal

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 19:55:15 +0000

CNAS meets Living the Promise campaign goal Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/25/2020 - 12:55 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR September 25, 2020

A gift made anonymously to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UC Riverside has helped the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, or CNAS, in which the department is housed, meet and surpass its goal of raising $100 million toward the $300 million Living the Promise campaign, the university’s first ever comprehensive fundraising campaign

“Exceeding our $100 million goal is an incredible feat and the timing couldn’t be more critical,” said Kathryn Uhrich, dean of CNAS. “Despite facing one of the most challenging times in recent history, supporters recognize how much value CNAS and UCR bring to our local and global communities.”

By advancing faculty research, providing scholarships for students, and enhancing programs in CNAS, the generosity of the college’s donors will further UCR’s standing as an international leader in education and research.

“This generosity also demonstrates the confidence our supporters have in our students, faculty, and staff to drive discovery, innovation, and education,” Uhrich said. “We are incredibly grateful for every gift made that helped CNAS reach its campaign goal. The anonymous gift of $600,000 that pushed us over the $100 million mark is especially meaningful. After dedicating more than 30 years of service to the UCR community, an emeritus faculty member will continue his legacy by supporting graduate and undergraduate students with physics scholarships.”

The anonymous gift, made earlier this month, is the largest gift the Department of Physics and Astronomy has received.

“The receipt of this generous gift, which will be used to fund prestigious student fellowships, helps to propel the UCR Department of Physics and Astronomy to the next level,” said Kenneth Barish, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

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Major neutrino experiment yields new publications

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 16:29:31 +0000

Major neutrino experiment yields new publications Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/27/2020 - 08:29 More News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR February 26, 2020 https://insideucr.ucr.edu/stories/2020/02/26/major-neutrino-experiment-yields-new-publications

Yanou Cui, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is a coauthor on two important research papers on boosted dark matter, a novel type of dark matter model.

A member of a flagship next-generation neutrino experiment named the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, Cui is an expert on the interface between particle physics and cosmology, including dark matter.

Dark matter is one of the most profound puzzles in fundamental physics and cosmology. Cui emphasized that the two papers facilitate the discovery of a well-motivated dark matter theory using DUNE.

“Our studies can inform this critical stage of designing DUNE, which is still under construction,” she said. “Our results described in the two papers can help the search for other new physics involving energetic dark matter dynamics in next-generation neutrino experiments.”

The first paper is a critical, community-serving document that includes many scientific targets for DUNE, Cui said. The second paper, which she wrote with a few DUNE collaborators, will be submitted to Physical Review Letters.

Both papers discuss boosted dark matter, or BDM, a class of dark matter candidates in which a small subcomponent is relativistic — or energetic — at the present time. This is in contrast to the standard lore that all dark matter today is non-relativistic or cold.

“In our work, we essentially lay down the foundation for BDM searches at DUNE,” said Cui, one of the scientists who first proposed the novel idea of BDM and the most senior theorist on the second paper. “A potential discovery channel is a dark matter-nucleus scattering channel. Dark matter can scatter off electrons, which is a much easier channel, and people have worked on it, but dark matter-nucleus is more challenging.”

Cui added that the research teams investigated BDM-nucleus scattering in detail by developing new dedicated event generation techniques.

“While this scattering can be the smoking-gun for dark matter discovery, it is a theoretical and experimental challenge,” she said. “In the papers, we demonstrate that the excellent event reconstruction capability of DUNE significantly broadens the ‘discovery reach’ for BDM — beyond what is possible with previous and current neutrino experiments.”

Yanou Cui

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Probing boosted dark matter

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 15:40:02 +0000

Probing boosted dark matter Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/05/2019 - 07:40 More News IQBAL PITTALWALA | Inside UCR December 04, 2019 https://insideucr.ucr.edu/stories/2019/12/04/probing-boosted-dark-matter

Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory joined with its international partners to break ground on a new beamline that will help scientists learn more about ghostly particles called neutrinos.

The beamline is part of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility which will house the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, an international endeavor to build and operate the world’s most advanced experiment to study neutrinos.

Yanou Cui, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, joined the DUNE collaboration a few months ago due largely to her work on “boosted dark matter,” a novel type of dark matter model, which can be effectively probed with DUNE experiments.

An international experiment, DUNE brings together more than 1,000 scientists from more than 30 countries around the world.

“I have contributed to the technical design report which will be published soon, and I am also working with some DUNE experimentalists at Stanford University on a separate paper about the search at DUNE for boosted dark matter,” she said.

Cui joined UC Riverside in 2016. She is an expert on the interface between particle physics and cosmology, including dark matter and the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry.

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