Assistant Professor Jonathan Asaadi is one of just 76 scientists nationwide to earn this year’s U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Award. The prestigious award will support his project to expand the physics reach of the time projection chamber (TPC) by making it capable of detecting previously inaccessible regimes.
The TPC is a particle detector invented by David Nygren—now a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Physics at UTA—that provides a complete, 3D image of large quantities of simultaneous subatomic particle collisions.
Dr. Asaadi is focused on noble element TPCs—noble elements include the least reactive metals and inert gases—which are a popular tool for pursuing the physics associated with neutrino mass, dark matter, and the search for new particles and interactions.
“The objective of this research is to transform the physics reach of these instruments and develop new detection strategies to expand their capabilities to previously inaccessible regimes,” he explains.
