Mark Hartz
Senior Research Scientist / Joint Faculty with Nagoya University
Dr. Hartz’s research is focused on experimental particle physics, specifically neutrino physics. He is collaborating on experiments that probe the fundamental properties of neutrinos, including the T2K long baseline neutrino experiment, the Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) experiment and the under construction Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) experiment.
Neutrinos are fundamental particles that differ from other particles in the Standard Model by having much smaller masses and only interacting via the weak force. Hence, they provide a window to search for new physics that may explain their uniqueness. They also represent an unmeasured source of Charge-Parity (CP) asymmetry, an asymmetry between matter and antimatter that may be necessary to explain the lack of antimatter in the universe. In the T2K experiment and Hyper-K experiment, Dr. Hartz is interested in carrying about precision measurements of neutrino oscillations and the measurement of CP asymmetry.
Dr. Hartz’s activities are focused on the control of systematic uncertainties for neutrino oscillation and CP asymmetry measurements. He has been active in the development of the Intermediate Water Cherenkov Detector (IWCD) for Hyper-K, which will measure important systematic effects related to neutrino-nucleus scattering. He is also leading the effort for the construction and operation of the Water Cherenkov Test Experiment (WCTE), a prototype for IWCD, where detector systems, calibration and event reconstruction techniques are being tested.