CCAPP Fellows Symposium 2026

Seminar

CCAPP Fellows Symposium 2026

CCAPP is proud to host the 2026 CCAPP Fellows Symposium! 

The CCAPP postdoctoral fellows and affiliate fellows will present their research in short talks in a hybrid event, in person in PRB 1080 (right off the PRB atrium) and also on Zoom (the link will be available shortly). The symposium will take place from 12:00 - 4:30 pm on September 30 and 12:00 - 4:30 pm on October 1.

The main motivation of the symposium is to have new and present researchers share their research with the rest of CCAPP, and also help the new arrivals to get acquainted with the other members of the departments.  We also invite graduation students from both Astronomy and Physics to showcase their research during the Poster sessions.

Everyone from CCAPP, the Department of Astronomy, and the Department of Physics is welcome to attend the symposium in person or online.  Talks will be geared to a general physics/astronomy audience.

The meeting is broken up generally by subject, with different sessions focusing on research ranging from supernova to gravitational lensing, neutrino detection, dark matter theory and more.  The agenda and abstracts are listed below.

Lead organizers: Madeline Howell, Charuhas Shiveshwarkar, and Kevin Vockerodt

 

Symposium Agenda

Wednesday September 30, 2026

12:00 pm -- Poster session & Lunch 

1:00 pm -- Welcome from Dr. David Weinberg

1:05 pm -- Astroparticle I (Chair: Maddy Howell)

  • Rasmi Hajjar, "Self-Calibration of the Neutrino-Argon Cross Section with Solar Neutrinos"
  • Jung-Tsung Li, "A Boiling Plasma Soup Shapes the Solar Gamma-Ray Emission"
  • Lucas Beaufore, "The PUEO Instrument: Data Acquisition and Flight"
  • Quin Abarr, "Searching for Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos with PUEO"
     

2:05 pm -- Astronomy I (Chair: Misha Rashkovetskyi)

  • Raquel Forés Toribio, "The failed supernova candidate N6946-BH1, its neighbors, and the defining properties of failed SNe"
  • Michael Tucker, "Supernovae and their Host Galaxies"
  • Claire Ye (Online), "Compact Object Binaries from Dissolved Star Clusters"
  • Madeline Howell, "TESS Asteroseismology and APOGEE Spectroscopy of Open Clusters and Beyond"
     

3:05 pm -- Sparkler Session

3:15 pm -- Break

3:30 pm -- Cosmology I (Chair: Kevin Vockerodt)

  • Michael Rashkovetskyi, "Validation of semi-analytic covariance matrices for DESI DR2 clustering measurements"
  • Xinyi Chen, "Improving DESI BAO measurements by hybrid reconstruction"
  • Molly Wolfson, "Constraining Reionization with the z>5 Lyman-α forest power spectrum"
  • Federico Berlfein, "Weak Lensing with the Roman Space Telescope: From Pixels to Cosmology"
     

4:30 pm -- Closing & Group Photo

Thursday October 1, 2026

11:00 am -- Astroparticle II  (Chair:  Maddy Howell)

  • Paramita Dasgupta, "From Antarctic Ice to the Moon: An Exact Electromagnetic Modeling of Radio Wave propagation"
  • Justin Flaherty, "The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): Current Simulation and Analysis Efforts"
  • Alisa Nozdrina, "Searching for Cosmic Ray Signatures with the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G)"
  • Kevin Vockerodt, "From NOvA to DUNE: Measuring Cross Sections and Resolving Pile-Up in Accelerator Neutrinos"
     

12:00 pm -- Sparkler Session

12:05 pm – Poster session & Lunch

1:00 pm -- Cosmology II & Astronomy II (Chair: Kevin Vockerodt)

  • Ce Sui, "Learning Likelihood Scores for Simulation-Based Inference and Information Evaluation"
  • Claire Lamman, "Detecting gravity at the largest scales: Intrinsic tidal shear with multiplet alignment in DESI"
  • Alexandra C. Semposki, "Going beyond next-to leading order: quantifying uncertainties in the Fermi liquid description of dense nuclear matter"
  • Manami Roy, "Cosmic Rays: The Hidden Architects of Galactic Evolution"
     

2:00 pm -- Astronomy III (Chair: Misha Rashkovetskyi)

  • Bill Chen (online), "Simulating star cluster formation at cosmic dawn: Can clusters drive bursty star formation?"
  • Milan Pesta, "Finding Anomalies among 370 000 ASAS-SN Variable Stars with Agentic Active Learning"
  • Ali Crisp, "Predictions of η⨁ from the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey"
  • Amber Malpas, "The Roman Microlensing Data Challenge 2026"
     

3:00 pm -- Closing

Abstracts

Astroparticle I

Presenter: Rasmi Hajjar

Title: "Self-Calibration of the Neutrino-Argon Cross Section with Solar Neutrinos"
Abstract: The success of DUNE’s MeV physics program depends upon high precision knowledge of the charged-current (CC) ν_e + 40Ar cross section. While there are indirect constraints at the 10% level for the nuclear transitions that constitute this cross section, the only direct measurement in the MeV range has an uncertainty of ~50%. We show, surprisingly, that the cross section can be precisely measured using the solar-neutrino data themselves. This is possible because of independent knowledge of the 8B flux and survival probability, plus the distinctive angular distributions of the Fermi and Gamow-Teller transitions that comprise the cross section. We propose new methods to extract the transition strengths, considering both intuitive groupings and a Principal Component Analysis. Under pessimistic assumptions about detection, but taking detector uncertainties to be controlled, we demonstrate that a precision of ≲2% on the cross section can be achieved in the 9-15 MeV energy range. These results will be an important foundation for studying the cross section up to several tens of MeV, where the complexity increases significantly due to nuclear breakup channels but where reducing uncertainties is critical for supernova and atmospheric neutrino studies.


Presenter: Jung-Tsung Li

Title: "A Boiling Plasma Soup Shapes the Solar Gamma-Ray Emission"
Abstract: The solar disk is a continuous source of GeV-TeV gamma rays. The emission is thought to originate from hadronic Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) interacting with the solar gas in the photosphere and uppermost convection zone after being reflected by solar magnetic fields. At these depths, convection drives a filamentary magnetic field at the solar surface. In this talk, I will present gamma-ray emission computed for a photospheric magnetic environment taken from 3D MHD simulations of magnetoconvection. The predicted spectral slope from 0.1 GeV to 1 TeV agrees well with Fermi-LAT and HAWC observations, establishing solar-disk gamma rays as a probe of hadronic GCR transport in the lower solar atmosphere.


Presenter: Lucas Beaufore

Title: "The PUEO Instrument: Data Acquisition and Flight"
Abstract: The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) is a long-duration balloon experiment designed to search for the astrophysical and cosmogenic neutrino flux at ultrahigh energies (>1 EeV) with world-leading sensitivity. During its successful 23-day Antarctic flight in the 2025-2026 austral summer, PUEO monitored the Antarctic ice sheet for impulsive radio signals characteristic of Askaryan radiation from ultrahigh energy neutrinos interacting in the ice, geomagnetic emission of air showers induced by ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, and neutrino-produced tau decays. This talk will give an overview of the PUEO instrument, with particular focus on its phased-array trigger design and performance.


Presenter: Quin Abarr

Title: "Searching for Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos with PUEO"
Abstract: PUEO (the Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations) is a balloon-borne ultrahigh energy neutrino detector which flew over Antarctica for 23 days during the 2025-2026 austral summer. Its primary instrument is an array of 96 radio frequency antennas, operating a phased-array trigger aiming to detect low SNR radio signals from ultrahigh energy neutrinos (>10^18 eV); when these interact in the Antarctic ice, they produce an impulsive signal that can be detected by the payload flying 30km above the ice sheet. This presentation will focus on an overview of the PUEO instrument and its flight, with a focus on the navigation suite (such as GNSS antennas, inertial sensors, and sun sensors) used to determine the payload's orientation and position.

Astronomy I

Presenter: Raquel Forés Toribio

Title: "The failed supernova candidate N6946-BH1, its neighbors, and the defining properties of failed SNe"
Abstract: Stellar collapse models predict that some red supergiant stars with initial masses greater than about 15 M_sun may collapse directly to a black hole as a failed supernovae, sometimes with a weak optical transient. Observational confirmation of these events is challenging, as it requires identifying massive stars that disappear in nearby galaxies. Two promising candidates, N6946-BH1 and M31-2014-DS1, show properties consistent with this scenario. We reanalyze the available JWST observations of N6946-BH1 to characterize its remnant emission and local environment. We identify four nearby near-infrared sources that are not associated with the mid-infrared emission of the candidate. The SED of N6946-BH1 is well described by a source enshrouded in a silicate dust shell, with negligible emission at wavelengths shorter than 2 microns. To place these results in context, we compile progenitor and late-time emission for four Galactic and seven extragalactic stellar merger events. We find that stellar merger remnants are typically 10 to 100 times more luminous than their progenitors, whereas failed supernova candidates are about 10 times fainter than their progenitors. Although these luminosities are derived assuming spherically symmetric dust distributions, axisymmetric geometries cannot account for the roughly factor 100 difference in remnant-to-progenitor luminosity ratios. This result suggests that failed supernova candidates constitute an observationally distinct class of objects.


Presenter: Michael Tucker

Title: "Supernovae and their Host Galaxies"
Abstract: I will present and discuss some highlights from the first data release of the Spectroscopic Classification of Astronomical Transients survey, focusing on exploding stars (supernovae) and the properties of their parent galaxies.


Presenter: Claire Ye

Title: "Compact Object Binaries from Dissolved Star Clusters"
Abstract: Recent Gaia astrometry has revealed an intriguing population of neutron stars (NS) and black holes (BH) in wide orbits with luminous stars. The overabundance in the halo and low metallicities of the neutron star binaries and the black hole binary in a stellar stream all point to potential dynamical formation in dense star clusters. To probe their origins, we place these binaries within the broader context of Galactic cluster evolution by combining the state-of-the-art N-body Cluster Monte Carlo (CMC) code with E-MOSAICS Pathfinder cosmological simulations. We predict that dissolved clusters produce approximately 1,000 NS-main sequence and 100,000 BH-main sequence binaries in the Milky Way over a Hubble time. By applying Gaia selection effects to 'observe' these model binaries, we assess whether dissolved clusters can explain the currently detected population and forecast detectability for Gaia DR4 and beyond. In this talk, I will present these findings, illustrate how the dissolution of dense stellar systems shapes the binary populations of the Galactic halo, and briefly outline directions for future work.


Presenter: Madeline Howell

Title: "TESS Asteroseismology and APOGEE Spectroscopy of Open Clusters and Beyond"
Abstract: Open clusters are fundamental laboratories for testing stellar and Galactic evolution. The combination of asteroseismology and spectroscopy enhances these studies by enabling detailed stellar characterisation, with precise measurements of masses, ages, temperatures, and chemical abundances for these simple stellar populations. However, the detection of asteroseismic oscillations in open cluster red giants using TESS remains challenging due to the crowded stellar environments. 

We demonstrate the exciting feasibility of detecting oscillations in isolated cluster stars, where we present the first measurements of seismic masses for red giants in the old metal-rich open cluster NGC 188 using TESS photometry and APOGEE spectroscopy. These seismic masses are used to identify binary interaction remnants and to constrain stellar mass loss. Additionally, we emphasise the importance of ensemble studies that combine asteroseismology and spectroscopy of open clusters, and present a sample of candidate clusters with significant numbers of red giants that can be targeted for future analyses.

Finally, we discuss ongoing work towards developing an asteroseismic and spectroscopic catalog combining data from the APOGEE and TESS surveys, known as APO-TESS.  The all-sky TESS mission provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the oscillations in red giants in a wide range of Milky Way stellar populations, where the ability to probe to lower metallicities is especially vital in studies of calibrating the seismic scaling relations. This catalog will build upon the successful legacies of APOKASC and APO-K2 that are widely used in Galactic archaeology studies, where initial estimates suggest that the APO-TESS catalog will yield a sample increase by up to an order of magnitude.

Cosmology I

Presenter: Michael Rashkovetskyi

Title: "Validation of semi-analytic covariance matrices for DESI DR2 clustering measurements"
Abstract: My talk will focus on the methodology for the fast semi-analytical covariance matrices for the Legendre moments of the 2-point correlation functions of galaxies and quasars, and its validation on simulated (mock) catalogs for different galaxy types, representative of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 2. This approach has been an attractive alternative to simulation-based covariances, allowing to analyze new sample selections and enabling or enhancing many robustness tests to analyze choices. I may also discuss the semi-analytical covariance matrices for the 3-point correlation functions or power spectra.


Presenter: Xinyi Chen

Title: "Improving DESI BAO measurements by hybrid reconstruction"
Abstract: One area to improve the DESI BAO measurements is from improving the reconstruction technique. A hybrid reconstruction, combining traditional reconstruction methods with machine learning techniques, can significantly improve the BAO measurement. This has been shown in idealized simulations. I will show that this also works in realistic DESI mocks, accounting for various survey realism, which makes it promising to apply to real data and tighten the BAO constraints.


Presenter: Molly Wolfson

Title: "Constraining Reionization with the z>5 Lyman-α forest power spectrum"
Abstract: Understanding the end stages of reionization requires connecting the sources that ionized the intergalactic medium (IGM) with the evolving structure of the diffuse gas itself. While JWST observations are now revealing galaxies well into the reionization era, the thermal and ionization history of the IGM contains complementary information about how this process unfolded. The Lyman-α (Lyα) forest in high-redshift quasar spectra provides a direct probe of the post-reionization IGM. I will present new measurements of the one-dimensional Lyα forest flux power spectrum at z > 5, where signatures of patchy reionization and temperature fluctuations may still persist. By comparing the large-scale power to forward-modeled simulations, we can constrain the timing and morphology of reionization and the nature of the sources that drove it. These measurements offer a powerful bridge between galaxy-based and IGM-based views of reionization.


Presenter: Federico Berlfein

Title: "Weak Lensing with the Roman Space Telescope: From Pixels to Cosmology"
Abstract: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope High-Latitude Imaging Survey will deliver unprecedented wide-field, high-resolution, near-infrared imaging of roughly a billion galaxies that will transform our understanding of dark energy, dark matter, and the growth of cosmic structure. Among its core science goals is the precise measurement of weak gravitational lensing to probe the distribution of matter across cosmic time. These measurements manifest as the correlated distortions, or shear, of the shapes of distant galaxies, making their accurate inference from imaging data a central challenge for weak-lensing cosmology.

Pixels, however, are messy: the images we observe contain a wide range of instrumental and astrophysical effects that can bias the already faint weak-lensing signal we are trying to measure. Going from pixelated images to cosmological constraints therefore requires a precise understanding of both the instrument and the astrophysical effects encoded in the images and our measurements. As Roman pushes weak-lensing measurements into a regime increasingly limited by systematic rather than statistical uncertainties, identifying, characterizing, and mitigating these effects will be essential for obtaining unbiased cosmological constraints. In this talk, I will discuss some of the key challenges facing weak-lensing measurements with Roman, my work toward addressing several of them, and what lies ahead for Roman following its launch.

Cosmology II & Astronomy II

Presenter: Ce Sui (Online)

Title: "Learning Likelihood Scores for Simulation-Based Inference and Information Evaluation"
Abstract: Many cosmological inference problems have intractable likelihoods, making it difficult to perform inference or quantify the information they contain. I will present a simulation-based approach for learning the likelihood score—the gradient of the log likelihood directly from simulations. This provides tools for performing inference and evaluating Fisher information without relying on the usual Gaussian-likelihood approximation. I will show how the method works and discuss some cosmological problems to which we are applying it.


Presenter: Claire Lamman

Title: "Detecting gravity at the largest scales: Intrinsic tidal shear with multiplet alignment in DESI"
Abstract: Gravitational forces from the largest structures in the universe leave a detectable imprint on galaxies and their local environment. This can manifest as the 'intrinsic alignment' of galaxy orientations to the large-scale tidal field. Although considered a nuisance for weak lensing, these correlations uniquely encode cosmological information sensitive to the physics of the very early universe. However, applications are limited due to the challenges of imaging the shapes of individual galaxies and the fact that alignment is not observed in blue or faint galaxies. We circumvent these issues by instead considering the orientation of small sets of galaxies, or 'multiplets'. I will present the latest measurements of multiplet alignment, using DESI DR2 BGS, LRG, and ELG. We detect intrinsic gravitational shear on the largest scales yet, over 200 Mpc/h. We also make the first measurements of the multiplet-multiplet autocorrelation and explore trends with redshift and galaxy morphology. 


Presenter: Alexandra C. Semposki

Title: "Going beyond next-to leading order: quantifying uncertainties in the Fermi liquid description of dense nuclear matter"
Abstract: Fermi liquid theory (FLT) is a well-known and well-understood result that allows us to compute order-by-order finite-temperature corrections to the zero-temperature equation of state (EOS). This systematic expansion implies an effective-field-theory treatment of higher-order uncertainties is possible. Up to now, the leading order and next-to-leading order terms have been computed; in this talk, I will present our work extending this analytic calculation to next-to-next-to-leading order, as well as our application of the BUQEYE truncation error model to the FLT results for a mean-field EOS. I will also discuss applications of this work to neutron star cooling and to more state-of-the-art dense matter EOSs.


Presenter: Manami Roy

Title: "Cosmic Rays: The Hidden Architects of Galactic Evolution"
Abstract: Cosmic-ray (CR) transport and its impact on different environment of galaxies remain an open question in the field of galaxy evolution. In the interstellar medium (ISM), puzzling gamma-ray observations continue to challenge our understanding of CR propagation, while in the circumgalactic medium (CGM), limited observations make it difficult to constrain the role of CRs. The problem is further compounded by the enormous dynamic range involved: the relevant physical scales span over ten orders of magnitude, from AU-scale CR gyroradii to halo-scale processes extending hundreds of kiloparsecs. In my talk, I will discuss the impact of CR physics across different galactic scales and its influence on galaxy evolution.

Astronomy III

Presenter: Bill Chen (online)

Title: "Simulating star cluster formation at cosmic dawn: Can clusters drive bursty star formation?"
Abstract: JWST has revealed compact, massive star-forming systems at (z>5) that are likely globular cluster progenitors. Unlike in local galaxies, most newly formed stars appear to be concentrated in these clusters, challenging current theories of early star formation. Therefore, cosmological simulations of massive high-z galaxies that connect cluster-scale physics to galaxy properties are urgently needed. To address this gap, we are developing pc-resolution zoom-in simulations with the adaptive-mesh-refinement code ART, where individual clusters are represented by sink particles. This approach can follow the evolution of cluster populations within their host galaxies in a cosmological context. Initial results suggest that clustered star formation can substantially increase the burstiness of galaxy-scale star formation, as rapid cluster formation produces spatially and temporally concentrated stellar feedback. I will discuss this effect and outline future applications of these new simulations.


Presenter: Milan Pesta

Title: "Finding Anomalies among 370 000 ASAS-SN Variable Stars with Agentic Active Learning"
Abstract: Unusual light-curve morphologies can point to rare physical configurations or new phenomena, but automatic searches for anomalies are often dominated by artifacts. Separating genuine anomalies from false positives has traditionally required manual vetting, which does not scale to modern surveys. In this talk, I will present an active learning framework for anomaly detection where the vetting is delegated to multimodal LLM agents. We applied the framework to a sample of over 370 000 periodic variable stars from ASAS-SN. Across 51 active learning iterations completed over 3 hours, our Gemini 3 Flash agents inspected ~1% of the sample at a total cost of ~$40 in API calls and identified 24 anomalies, 18 of them newly reported. The anomalies include eclipsing binaries with extremely deep eclipses, high-amplitude contact binaries and pulsators, and a symbiotic nova in outburst for more than two decades. These results establish agentic active learning as a practical route to anomaly detection in existing and upcoming photometric surveys.


Presenter: Ali Crisp

Title: "Predictions of η⨁ from the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey"
Abstract: NASA’s next astrophysics flagship mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman), is scheduled to begin observations in early 2027. One of its core science missions will be to survey the Galactic bulge for gravitational microlensing events caused by exoplanets. Since the microlensing method is sensitive to a different parameter space than the transit method – relying on the mass ratio and physical separation between planet and host star rather than their radii – the survey will be able to census a broader range of systems than currently confirmed. One objective of the survey is to place better constraints on η⨁, the frequency of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars. Using the gulls microlensing code (Penny et al. 2014), we simulate a sample of planets with masses 0.1 ≤ Mp ≤ 10 M⨁ and semi-major axes 0.01 ≤ a ≤ 10 AU and estimate the occurrence rates of these planets. This will ultimately allow us to confirm how well the Roman survey will constrain η⨁.


Presenter: Amber Malpas

Title: "The Roman Microlensing Data Challenge 2026"
Abstract: As part of the Roman Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey (GBTDS) the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey (RGES) is expected to detect O(10,000) microlensing events, including O(1,000) bound and free-floating planets. The amount of data that the microlensing community will need to analyze is unprecedented in the field. A larger workforce and new analysis techniques will likely be needed to efficiently detect and characterize events. In anticipation of these needs, the RGES Project Infrastructure Team (PIT) ran a microlensing data challenge aimed at both beginner and experienced microlensers, for analyzing simulated Roman events, to encourage new astronomers to the field and the development of the next generation of efficiency-and-complexity-minded analysis techniques. Here we present an overview of the data challenge, including developments required to create the required data sets, and lessons learned so far (pre-evaluation).

Astroparticle II

Presenter: Paramita Dasgupta

Title: "From Antarctic Ice to the Moon: An Exact Electromagnetic Modeling of Radio Wave propagation"
Abstract: Radio experiments in ice, on planetary surfaces, and in lunar orbit rely on understanding how radio waves reflect and transmit through layered dielectric media. The commonly used flat-Fresnel approximation can become inadequate when curvature, stratification, or surface roughness is important. I developed an exact spherical-wave electromagnetic model for radio-wave reflection and transmission from an arbitrary stack of layers, requiring only the layer permittivities and thicknesses. The model is validated against ANITA/HiCal calibration measurements at the few-percent level and has been submitted to Physical Review D in August 2026. I further apply the model to ANITA's anomalous-polarity events to ask whether the observed polarity inversion could be an artifact of subsurface layering, and test whether realistic firn stratification can produce the required polarity reversal. This constrains one possible explanation for this long-standing anomaly. Because the formulation is general, the same framework can also be applied to other layered media, including salt, sand, and lunar regolith. I will show examples of these applications and briefly discuss how the framework connects to radio observations of the lunar surface and, ultimately, to observational cosmology through the search for faint signals from the early Universe.


Presenter: Justin Flaherty

Title: "The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): Current Simulation and Analysis Efforts"
Abstract: The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) is a balloon-borne experiment that seeks to observe ultrahigh energy (above 1 EeV) neutrinos. It is designed to detect both geomagnetic emissions from particle showers in the atmosphere and Askaryan radiation, an impulsive radio signal generated by particle showers in dense, dielectric media such as ice, both of which can be induced by neutrinos and cosmic rays. Following a successful 23-day flight over Antarctica, PUEO detected trillions of impulsive radio events in the 300–1200 MHz frequency range. Due to the expected low signal-to-noise ratio of neutrino events and the high sensitivity of the instrument, the vast majority of these events are noise. Work is now underway to characterize this dataset in order to search for neutrinos. This talk will outline current simulation and analysis efforts for the PUEO flight.


Presenter: Alisa Nozdrina

Title: "Searching for Cosmic Ray Signatures with the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G)"
Abstract: Ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays are subatomic particles coming from space, carrying extreme energies. However, their origin is still unknown. When entering and interacting in the atmosphere, they produce cascades of secondary particles known as extensive air showers, which can extend over several kilometers. 

The Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) is currently being built to detect UHE neutrinos. It consists of arrays of antennas installed in deep, ~100 m ice boreholes, monitoring the glacier for short radio pulses produced through the Askaryan effect by neutrino-induced particle showers in the ice. 

Due to its location on top of the Greenland ice sheet, at an elevation of ~3 km above sea level, RNO-G can also detect UHE Cosmic Rays by observing Askaryan emission produced when air showers reach and enter the ice. These events are a natural background for the neutrino search, but at the same time provide a way to validate the radio detection technique used for neutrinos and an opportunity for additional cosmic-ray science.


Presenter: Kevin Vockerodt

Title: "From NOvA to DUNE: Measuring Cross Sections and Resolving Pile-Up in Accelerator Neutrinos"

Abstract: Neutrinos reach us from sources spanning enormous scales, from the cosmic and astrophysical to the terrestrial and human-made. Accelerator-based neutrino experiments play a distinct but complementary role in this landscape: intense, well-characterized beams provide the large statistics needed to constrain neutrino interaction physics, underpinning precision oscillation measurements and the search for CP violation central to the field's next major goals. This talk traces a path through that program, from present-day measurements to ongoing detector development. Using several million neutrino interactions collected by the NOvA experiment, an in-progress measurement of the muon-antineutrino charged-current cross section for final states with no mesons is discussed. The talk then turns to DUNE's Near Detector complex, including the 2x2 demonstrator and ND-LAr. As accelerator neutrino detectors grow more capable, they face a new challenge: pile-up, with many neutrino interactions overlapping within a single detector readout. The use of a graph neural network to match tracks between ND-LAr and the TMS muon spectrometer, essential for correctly reconstructing muon energy amid this pile-up, is introduced as one strategy for addressing this.

Poster Session

Poster Presenters & Titles

Nihar Dalal: "Simulating and Modeling he Point Spread Function of the Roman Space Telescope"

Andrew Engel: "Dwarf Galaxy Injection: Recovery, Detection and Analysis for Rubin X Roman"

Aditi Fulsundar: "Echoes in EMRIs"

Serat Saad: "Understanding metal-rich stars in the solar neighborhood"

Deb Pathak: "Dusty & Over-pressured: Stellar feedback in the dusty ISM"

Cara Nel: "Corrections to Hawking Radiation due to Stochastic Charge and the Exchange Interaction"

Spencer Griffith: "Minimal dark matter: generalized framework and direct/indirect detection sensitivities"

Chloe Zheng: "Simulating Self-Interacting Dark Matter"

Paarmita Pandey: "The Spectacular Lives of Massive Stars: A Multiwavelength View"

Souradeep Das: "Stellar capture of Primordial Black Holes via Dissipative 3-body Interactions"

Melanie Zaidel: "Discovering Isolated Neutron Stars using Rubin Observatory"

Ayush Dhital: "Local volume predictions from the TNG50-1 simulation"

Anuvab Sarkar: "On the Gravothermal Collapse of Self-Interacting Dark Matter Halos"

Nicole Gountanis: "Galaxies as Probes of Fundamental Physics"

Alex Machtay: "The Askaryan Radio Array: An Array-Wide Search for the Diffuse UHE Neutrino Flux"