Kerstin Perez

Last updated
Kerstin Perez
Alma mater
Scientific career
Institutions
Thesis Inclusive jet cross sections in proton-proton collisions at 7.0 TeV center-of-mass energy with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider  (2011)
Doctoral advisor Emlyn Hughes

Kerstin Perez is an associate professor of Particle Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is interested in physics beyond the standard model. She leads the silicon detector program for the General AntiParticle Spectrometer (GAPS) and the high-energy X-ray analysis community for the NuSTAR telescope array.

Contents

Early life and education

Perez was born and raised in West Philadelphia. [1] She studied physics and mathematics at Columbia University, earning an undergraduate degree magna cum laude in 2005. [2] She moved to the California Institute of Technology for her graduate studies, earning a master's in 2008 and a PhD in 2011. [1] She developed the ATLAS experiment pixel detector, and led the first ATLAS measurements of the inclusive cross-section for the production of hadronic jets. [3] Perez returned to Columbia University as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, working in the NuSTAR Galactic Center. [4] During her fellowship she developed outreach activities for the Columbia University Double Discovery Centre.

Research and career

Perez joined Haverford College as an assistant professor in 2015, before moving to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016. [1] Her research interests lie in physics beyond the standard model. [1] She leads the detection program for the general antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS), the first experiment that has been optimised to study low energy antinuclei. [5] [6] [7] [8] Perez is interested in anti-deuterons, antiproton-antineutron pairs which may provide evidence of the annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles, a candidate for dark matter. [1] [9] [10] The GAPS detection is particularly novel, including over 1,000 large-area, low-cost lithium-drifted silicon detectors made by Perez, which can monitor exotic atom capture and decay. [1] The GAPS experiment uses long-duration balloons and reaches the upper atmosphere. [1]

Alongside her work on GAPS, Perez leads the high-energy X-rays analysis group for the NuSTAR telescope array. [11] NuSTAR has revealed how stellar remnant populations vary as you move from the Galactic Center. [12] [13] This helps Perez identify sterile neutrinos, which could help to explain neutrino oscillation. [1]

Outreach and advocacy

Perez is an advocate for improved diversity in science, and supports students from underrepresented groups to study and research physics. [14] She is concerned that women and people of colour often carry an unnecessary burden in the scientific workplace. [15] She is involved with public engagement through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, supporting their massive open online course in electricity and magnetism. [1]

Publications

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

In astronomy, dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that appears not to interact with light or the electromagnetic field. Dark matter is implied by gravitational effects which cannot be explained by general relativity unless more matter is present than can be seen. Such effects occur in the context of formation and evolution of galaxies, gravitational lensing, the observable universe's current structure, mass position in galactic collisions, the motion of galaxies within galaxy clusters, and cosmic microwave background anisotropies.

Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are hypothetical particles that are one of the proposed candidates for dark matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time projection chamber</span>

In physics, a time projection chamber (TPC) is a type of particle detector that uses a combination of electric fields and magnetic fields together with a sensitive volume of gas or liquid to perform a three-dimensional reconstruction of a particle trajectory or interaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer</span> Particle detector on the International Space Station

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a particle physics experiment module that is mounted on the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment is a recognized CERN experiment (RE1). The module is a detector that measures antimatter in cosmic rays; this information is needed to understand the formation of the Universe and search for evidence of dark matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ANTARES (telescope)</span>

T2K is a particle physics experiment studying the oscillations of the accelerator neutrinos. The experiment is conducted in Japan by the international cooperation of about 500 physicists and engineers with over 60 research institutions from several countries from Europe, Asia and North America and it is a recognized CERN experiment (RE13). T2K collected data within its first phase of operation from 2010 till 2021. The second phase of data taking (T2K-II) is expected to start in 2023 and last until commencement of the successor of T2K – the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment in 2027.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyper-Kamiokande</span> Neutrino observatory in Japan

Hyper-Kamiokande is a neutrino observatory and experiment under construction, conducted in Japan by the collaboration of institutes from 21 countries from six continents. As a successor of the Super-Kamiokande (SK) and T2K experiments, it is designed to search for proton decay and detect neutrinos from natural sources such as the Earth, the atmosphere, the Sun and the cosmos, as well as to study neutrino oscillations of the man-made accelerator neutrino beam. The beginning of data-taking is planned for 2027.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SNOLAB</span> Canadian neutrino laboratory

SNOLAB is a Canadian underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. Located 2 km below the surface in Vale's Creighton nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities constructed for the original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment.

Astroparticle physics, also called particle astrophysics, is a branch of particle physics that studies elementary particles of astronomical origin and their relation to astrophysics and cosmology. It is a relatively new field of research emerging at the intersection of particle physics, astronomy, astrophysics, detector physics, relativity, solid state physics, and cosmology. Partly motivated by the discovery of neutrino oscillation, the field has undergone rapid development, both theoretically and experimentally, since the early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute of High Energy Physics</span> Chinese Government Agency

The Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHEP) is the largest and most comprehensive fundamental research center of high-energy physics in China. It is located in Shijingshan District, Beijing and administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The major research fields of IHEP are particle physics, astrophysics and astroparticle physics, accelerator physics and technologies, radiation technologies, and their applications.

Manfred Lindner is a German physicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. He conducts basic research in particle and astro-particle physics.

General antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS) is a planned experiment that will use a high-altitude balloon flying in Antarctica to look for antideuteron particles from outer space cosmic rays, in an effort to search for dark matter. Anti-deuterons could perhaps be produced by the annihilation of hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The goal of the GAPS experiment is to capture anti-deuterons in a target material, to form an exotic atom in an excited state. The exotic atom would quickly decay, producing detectable X-rays energies with pion signature from nuclear annihilation.

Charles James "Chuck" Hailey is an experimental astrophysicist and Pupin Professor of Physics at Columbia University. He earned his BA in physics from Cornell University in 1977 and his PhD from Columbia in 1983, with a thesis entitled "The Development of an Imaging Gas Scintillation Proportional Counter for Use in X-ray Astronomy." He received tenure from Columbia University in 1995. Hailey's research focuses on high energy astrophysics and experimental particle physics. He is co-director of the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, where he works on gamma-ray and X-ray research.

Karsten M. Heeger is a German–American physicist and Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Yale University, where he also serves as both chair of the Yale Department of Physics and director of Wright Laboratory. His work is primarily in the area of neutrino physics, focusing on the study of neutrino oscillations, neutrino mass, and dark matter.

Janet Marie Conrad is an American experimental physicist, researcher, and professor at MIT studying elementary particle physics. Her work focuses on neutrino properties and the techniques for studying them. In recognition of her efforts, Conrad has been the recipient of several highly prestigious awards during her career, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the American Physical Society Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David B. Cline</span> American particle physicist

]

Daniel Nicholas McKinsey is an American experimental physicist. McKinsey is a leader in the field of direct searches for dark matter interactions, and serves as Co-Spokesperson of the Large Underground Xenon experiment. and is an executive committee member of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment. He serves as Director and Principal Investigator of the TESSERACT Project, and is also The Georgia Lee Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FASER experiment</span> 2022 particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

FASER is one of the nine particle physics experiments in 2022 at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It is designed to both search for new light and weakly coupled elementary particles, and to detect and study the interactions of high-energy collider neutrinos. In 2023, FASER and SND@LHC reported the first observation of collider neutrinos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jocelyn Monroe</span> American experimental particle physicist

Jocelyn Monroe is an American British experimental particle physicist who is a professor at the University of Oxford. Her research considers the development of novel detectors as part of the search for dark matter. In 2016 she was honoured with the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her work on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "MIT Department of Physics". web.mit.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  2. ↑ "Kerstin Perez » MIT Physics". MIT Physics. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  3. ↑ KU Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series (2018-09-17), In Search of Cosmic-Ray Antinuclei from Dark Matter , retrieved 2019-03-19
  4. ↑ "Kerstin M. Perez | Department of Physics". physics.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  5. ↑ "Note Special Time: Nuclear Particle Astrophysics (NPA) Seminar: Kerstin Perez, MIT, "The GAPS Experiment: In Search of Cosmic-Ray Antinuclei from Dark Matter" | Department of Physics". physics.yale.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  6. ↑ "Department Colloquia | Physics | Brandeis University". www.brandeis.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  7. ↑ Zweerink, Jeffrey; Yoshida, Tetsuya; Tajiri, Gordon; Ong, Rene; Okazaki, Shun; Mori, Kaya; Mognet, Samuel Adam Isaac; Madden, Norm; Koglin, Jason (2013-01-01). "The gaps experiment: Hunting for dark matter with antideuterons". Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Rays Conference, ICRC 2013. Sociedade Brasileira de Fisica.
  8. ↑ Perez, Kerstin. "Development of a Novel Dark Matter Search with the GAPS Experiment".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. 1 2 "Kerstin M. Perez - Cottrell College Science Awards". Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  10. ↑ "GAPS - General Antiparticle Spectrometer". gaps1.astro.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  11. ↑ "CCAPP Seminar: Kerstin Perez (MIT) "High-energy X-rays from the Galactic Center: "zombie stars" and particle physics" | Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP)". ccapp.osu.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  12. ↑ "NuSTAR captures possible 'screams' from zombie stars". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  13. ↑ "Mysterious X-Rays Could Mark Enormous Star Graveyard Surrounding Our Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole". IFLScience. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  14. 1 2 Perez, Kerstin (2016-06-14). "Striving Toward a Space for Equity and Inclusion in Physics Classrooms". Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education. 1 (18). ISSN   2381-4268.
  15. ↑ Ardalan, Davar (15 July 2015). "3 Emerging Themes From #RaceOnTech". www.wyomingpublicmedia.org. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  16. ↑ Roach, Brandon M.; Ng, Kenny C. Y.; Perez, Kerstin; Beacom, John F.; Horiuchi, Shunsaku; Krivonos, Roman; Wik, Daniel R. (2020-05-08). "NuSTAR tests of sterile-neutrino dark matter: New Galactic bulge observations and combined impact". Physical Review D. 101 (10): 103011. arXiv: 1908.09037 . Bibcode:2020PhRvD.101j3011R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.101.103011. hdl:1721.1/135363. S2CID   201646209.
  17. ↑ Rogers, F.; et al. (2019). "Large-area Si(Li) detectors for X-ray spectrometry and particle tracking in the GAPS experiment". Journal of Instrumentation. 14 (10): P10009. arXiv: 1906.00054 . Bibcode:2019JInst..14P0009R. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/14/10/p10009. hdl:1721.1/129834. S2CID   173990572.
  18. ↑ "Seven MIT researchers win 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships". MIT News. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  19. ↑ "Paying it forward: Fellowship boosts women in physics". MIT News. 2 August 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  20. ↑ "Four honored with School of Science teaching prizes". MIT News. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  21. ↑ "Education and Outreach". Perez Lab @ MIT. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  22. ↑ "RCSA Names Two Dozen 2019 Cottrell Scholars". Research Corporation for Science Advancement. 13 February 2019. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
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