NAME:
University of Texas at Austin

HOME TOWN:
Austin, Texas

MASCOT:
Bevo the Longhorn

COLORS:
Burnt orange

COLLABORATING AT FERMILAB SINCE:
Mid-1990s

WORLDWIDE PARTICLE PHYSICS COLLABORATIONS:
ATLAS (CERN), MicroBooNE, MINERvA, MINOS+, NOvA, ORKA

NUMBER OF SCIENTISTS AND STUDENTS INVOLVED:
Two faculty, one postdocs, two graduate students

PARTICLE PHYSICS RESEARCH FOCUS:
We have been focusing on studies of neutrino oscillations (MINOS), NuMI beam studies and rare decays of B mesons (BaBar at SLAC) and kaons (ORKA). MINOS ran with low-energy NuMI beam and has produced some of the most stringent constraints on neutrino mixing angles and mass splittings. Analysis involving all data sets using three-flavor phenomenology is currently under way. MINOS detectors will continue their operations in the medium-energy beam tuned for NOvA. The new experiment, called MINOS+, will collect large statistics of events to further constrain neutrino oscillations parameters and enable search for sensitive sterile neutrino and other exotic phenomena. In the near future, the Texas group will also participate in NOvA and MicroBooNE. All three experiments address the main questions of neutrino physics and involve some overlapping issues of neutrino interactions and transformations. On BaBar our focus was on rare processes sensitive to new physics through box and penguin diagrams. We have contributed to searches for B to γγ, b to s^± and similar channels. We are also involved in a renewed effort to study the rare dacay of K⁺ to π⁺νν. The new experiment ORKA aims to collect 1,000 events, which would offer unprecedented sensitivity for new physics.

FUNDING AGENCIES:
DOE