Lecture - Dr. Matthew Malek - Neutrino astronomy: Ghostly messengers from the cosmos

ABSTRACT:

The value of neutrinos as messengers from the cosmos was recognised by the Royal Swedish Academic of Science with the award of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics to Ray Davis and Masatoshi Koshiba for pioneering the field of neutrino astronomy. From Davis's first measurements of solar neutrinos in the 1960s at the Homestake experiment to Koshiba's detection of neutrinos from Supernova 1987A in the Kamiokande-II detector, neutrino astronomy has already accomplished much. Recent years have proven rather exciting, with the first detection of high energy cosmic neutrinos from the IceCube observatory at the South Pole in 2012. IceCube followed on from that significant achievement by detecting neutrinos from a blazar in 2018 that were paired with optical observations -- a remarkable 'first' for multi-messenger astronomy! In this talk, I review the history of neutrino astronomy, present the recent observations from IceCube, and describe future discoveries that astronomical neutrinos have in store for us.

BIO:

Dr. Matthew Malek cut his professional teeth at the Kamioka Observatory in Japan.  Whilst there, he earned his doctorate as a member of the Super-Kamiokande collaboration by searching for relic neutrinos from ancient supernovae in the early Universe. After completing his degree, Matthew joined the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina to help unlock the mysteries of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. In 2006, he migrated to Oxford to join the hunt for dark matter. Now a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield, Matthew has returned to neutrino research, hoping that these 'ghostly' particles can explain why there is matter in the Universe. When not busy in the laboratory, Matthew can be found engaged in science outreach projects, ringing church bells, or training for his next triathlon.