Kate Scholberg
Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics
Professor of Physics
Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
Bass Fellow
Overview
Prof. Scholberg's broad research interests include experimental elementary particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Her main specific interests are in neutrino physics: she studies neutrino oscillations with the Super-Kamiokande experiment, a giant underground water Cherenkov detector located in a mine in the Japanese Alps. Super-K was constructed to search for proton decay and to study neutrinos from the sun, from cosmic ray collisions in the atmosphere, and from supernovae. On Super-K, Prof. Scholberg's primary involvement is with the atmospheric neutrino data analysis, which in 1998 yielded the first convincing evidence for neutrino oscillation (implying the existence of non-zero neutrino mass).
One of the most important questions that we may be able to answer with neutrino oscillation experiments over the next couple of decades is the question of CP (charge conjugation-parity) violation in neutrinos. It's now well known that processes involving quarks violate CP symmetry; it's suspected that the same is true for leptons (such as neutrinos), but leptonic CP violation is as yet unobserved. We hope that understanding of CP violation, along with knowledge of the other neutrino parameters, may lead to insight into the question of the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. The long-term program neutrino oscillation physics aims to answer these questions.
The next steps in neutrino oscillation research involve artificial beams of neutrinos sent hundreds of kilometers from accelerator laboratories to underground detectors. The T2K ("Tokai to Kamioka") high-intensity beam experiment sends neutrinos 300 km from an accelerator at the J-PARC facility in Japan to Super-K, and is currently exploring unknown oscillation parameters. The DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) is a planned next-generation U.S.-based international experiment designed to observe neutrinos beamed from Fermilab to a large liquid argon detector at a new underground facility in South Dakota. One of Prof. Scholberg's particular interests on DUNE is the detector's sensitivity to the huge bursts of neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae.
Prof. Scholberg served as spokesperson of COHERENT, a multi-detector experiment with the primary physics goal of measuring CEvNS (Coherent Elastic Neutrino Nucleus Scattering) using the high-intensity neutrinos produced by the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. CEvNS was measured for the first time by the collaboration in 2017.
Prof. Scholberg also coordinates SNEWS, the SuperNova Early Warning System, an inter-experiment collaboration of detectors with Galactic supernova sensitivity. Neutrinos from a core collapse will precede the photon signal by hours; therefore coincident observation of a burst in several neutrino detectors will be a robust early warning of a visible supernova. The goals of SNEWS are to provide the astronomical community with a prompt alert of a Galactic core collapse, as well as to optimize global sensitivity to supernova neutrino physics.
Selected Grants
MRI Consortium: Development of an Array of Germanium Detectors for COHERENT at the Spallation Neutron Source awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2019 to 2022
WoU-MMA: Collaborative Research: A Next-Generation SuperNova Early Warning System for Multimessenger Astronomy awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2019 to 2022
REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Particle Physics at TUNL and Duke awarded by National Science Foundation (Senior Investigator). 2018 to 2021
Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment Project awarded by (Principal Investigator). 2015 to 2020
Collaborative Research: SNEWS: The SuperNova Early Warning System awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2010 to 2020
Research in High Energy Physics at Duke University awarded by Department of Energy (Co Investigator). 2013 to 2020
Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment Project awarded by (Principal Investigator). 2015 to 2019
REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Physics at TUNL/Duke University awarded by National Science Foundation (Senior Investigator). 2015 to 2019
Research in High Energy Physics at Duke University awarded by Department of Energy (Co-Principal Investigator). 2013 to 2019
Collaborative Research: HALO, the Helium and Lead Observatory awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2012 to 2018
Pages
Scholberg, K. “Neutrinos from supernovae and other astrophysical sources.” The State Of The Art Of Neutrino Physics: A Tutorial For Graduate Students And Young Researchers, 2018, pp. 299–324. Scopus, doi:10.1142/10600. Full Text
Scholberg, K. “Neutrinos from Supernovae and Other Astrophysical Sources.” Advanced Series on Directions in High Energy Physics, vol. 28, 2018, pp. 299–324. Scopus, doi:10.1142/9789813226098_0008. Full Text
Scholberg, K. “Large underground detectors for proton decay and neutrino physics.” 100 Years of Subatomic Physics, 2013, pp. 311–42. Scopus, doi:10.1142/9789814425810_0012. Full Text
Linzer, N. B., and K. Scholberg. “Triangulation pointing to core-collapse supernovae with next-generation neutrino detectors.” Physical Review D, vol. 100, no. 10, Nov. 2019. Scopus, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.100.103005. Full Text
Simpson, C., et al. “Sensitivity of Super-Kamiokande with Gadolinium to Low Energy Antineutrinos from Pre-supernova Emission.” Astrophysical Journal, vol. 885, no. 2, Nov. 2019. Scopus, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab4883. Full Text
Jiang, M., et al. “Atmospheric neutrino oscillation analysis with improved event reconstruction in Super-Kamiokande IV.” Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, vol. 2019, no. 5, May 2019. Scopus, doi:10.1093/ptep/ptz015. Full Text
Abe, K., et al. “Search for light sterile neutrinos with the T2K far detector Super-Kamiokande at a baseline of 295 km SEARCH for LIGHT STERILE NEUTRINOS with the T2K ... K. ABE et al..” Physical Review D, vol. 99, no. 7, Apr. 2019. Scopus, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.071103. Full Text
Wan, L., et al. “Measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic cross section using atmospheric neutrinos at Super-Kamiokande.” Physical Review D, vol. 99, no. 3, Feb. 2019. Scopus, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.032005. Full Text
The T2k Collaboration, Bernard J., et al. “Search for neutral-current induced single photon production at the ND280 near detector in T2K.” Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, vol. 46, no. 8, Jan. 2019. Scopus, doi:10.1088/1361-6471/ab227d. Full Text
Abe, K., et al. “Search for CP Violation in Neutrino and Antineutrino Oscillations by the T2K Experiment with 2.2×10^{21} Protons on Target..” Physical Review Letters, vol. 121, no. 17, Oct. 2018. Epmc, doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.171802. Full Text
Li, Z., et al. “Measurement of the tau neutrino cross section in atmospheric neutrino oscillations with Super-Kamiokande.” Physical Review D, vol. 98, no. 5, Sept. 2018. Scopus, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.98.052006. Full Text
Abe, K., et al. “Characterization of nuclear effects in muon-neutrino scattering on hydrocarbon with a measurement of final-state kinematics and correlations in charged-current pionless interactions at T2K.” Physical Review D, vol. 98, no. 3, Aug. 2018. Scopus, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.98.032003. Full Text
Tanabashi, M., et al. “Review of Particle Physics.” Physical Review D, vol. 98, no. 3, Aug. 2018. Scopus, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.98.030001. Full Text
Pages
Akimov, D., et al. “COHERENT Experiment: Current status.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 798, no. 1, 2017. Scopus, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/798/1/012213. Full Text
Scholberg, K. “Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering by coherent.” Proceedings of Science, vol. 295, 2017.
Scholberg, K. “Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 606, no. 1, 2015. Scopus, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/606/1/012010. Full Text
Izatt, B., et al. “Super-KAVE: An immersive visualization tool for neutrino physics.” Proceedings Ieee Virtual Reality, 2013, pp. 75–76. Scopus, doi:10.1109/VR.2013.6549370. Full Text
Choi, K., et al. “Search for light WIMP captured in the Sun using contained events in Super-Kamiokande.” Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Rays Conference, Icrc 2013, vol. 2013-October, 2013.
Scholberg, Kate. “Future underground large detectors: prospects and physics case.” 12th International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (Taup 2011), Pts 1 6, edited by L. Oberauer et al., vol. 375, IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2012. Wos, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/375/1/042048. Full Text
Scholberg, Kate. “Neutrino Experiments at the SNS.” Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics, edited by M. L. Marshak, vol. 1182, AMER INST PHYSICS, 2009, pp. 76–79.
Scholberg, Kate. “CLEAR: Prospects for a low threshold neutrino experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 136, no. 4, IOP Publishing, 2008, pp. 042044–042044. Crossref, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/136/4/042044. Full Text
Cravens, P., et al. “Current status of solar neutrinos at super-kamiokande.” Annual Meeting of the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society, Dpf 2006, and the Annual Fall Meeting of the Japan Particle Physics Community, 2006.
Cravens, P., et al. “Current status of solar neutrinos at super-kamiokande.” Annual Meeting of the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society, Dpf 2006, and the Annual Fall Meeting of the Japan Particle Physics Community, American Physical Society, 2006.