Today Marco Stein Muzio (NYU) defended his PhD dissertation on multi-messenger cosmic-ray astrophysics (and cosmic-ray physics). He gave credible arguments that the combination of hadron, neutrino, muon, and photon data imply the existence of new kinds of sources contributing at the very highest energies. He made predictions for new data. We (the audience) asked him about constraining hadronic physics, and searching for new physics. He argued that the best place to look for new physics is in the muon signals: They don't seem to fit with the rest. But overall, if I had to summarize, he was more optimistic that the data would be all explained by astrophysical sources and hadronic physics, and not require modifications to the particle model. It was an impressive and lively defense. And Dr MSM has had a huge impact on my Department, co-founding a graduate-student political group and helping us work through issues of race, representation, and culture. I can't thank him enough, and I will miss his presence.
No comments:
Post a Comment