May, 2026
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- JT Mills and Jin Oueslati have won year-long fellowships from the DOE SCGSR program. The DOE SCGSR is a nationally competitive fellowship program that supports graduate student research toward the PhD on-site at a DOE national lab. Indiana University tied for the largest number of awards (2) among the 26 awarded for research in physics. The full list of awardees along with more details about this fellowship program can be found at:
- JT Mills-- The NOPTREX collaboration seeks to investigate parity (P) symmetry violation and time-reversal invariance (T) symmetry violation in the resonances of neutron-nucleus scattering. At LANSCE, we have constructed a new experimental apparatus to search for new sources of P violation in unstudied heavy nuclei. This apparatus consists of a polarized helium-3 neutron spin filter, an eV neutron spin flipper, a 24 detector NaI(Tl) gamma detector array, and a neutron transmission detector to measure P violating asymmetries in the neutron capture/transmission cross sections for different neutron helicities. In 2023/2024 this apparatus was used to measure the well-known P violating 0.7 eV resonance in Lanthanum-139, and to search for new P violating asymmetries in several other heavy nuclei. Our work in 2026 will be to optimize the performance of the apparatus and continue searching for new P violating asymmetries in other heavy nuclei.
- Jin Oueslati -- Project 8 is a neutrino mass experiment pioneering a frequency-based technique of cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) to precisely measure the endpoint energy of electrons emitted in tritium beta decay with an ultimate sensitivity goal of 40 meV/c^2. The atomic beamline for Project 8’s final phase must dissociate tritium molecules, cool tritium atoms to millikelvin temperatures, and trap them in a CRES-compatible resonant cavity.
We are exploring a radiofrequency (RF) dissociator leverages the principle of electron cyclotron resonance to produce a high atomic flux (~10^19 atoms/second) required to reach our target sensitivity. Our initial RF dissociator employs a 1 kW 2.45 GHz microwave generator coupled with magnetic fields to induce and sustain a plasma within a resonant cavity operating in the TE111 mode. Our experimental prototype involves constructing a hydrogen gas vacuum system and demonstrating plasma ignition to validate that dissociation can readily occur. Following the success of our prototype, we plan to refine our design and operating parameters of the dissociator to enhance its performance in preparation for nuclear beta decay measurements of radioactive tritium.