The National Science Foundation Division of Physics awarded The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York $190,000 on August 1, 2026, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to conduct research on dark sector particle discovery within the Short-Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab.
The research analyzes the complete MicroBooNE detector dataset to investigate the long-standing MiniBooNE anomaly—a 4.8-sigma excess of electromagnetic events—by combining multiple reconstruction frameworks and measuring roughly twenty final-state topologies simultaneously to determine whether a recently observed single-photon excess represents new physics or a standard model process. The work treats neutrinos as a natural portal between visible and dark matter, using three liquid argon time projection chambers (SBND, MicroBooNE, and ICARUS) capable of imaging neutrino interactions with millimeter resolution and distinguishing electrons, photons, and hadrons.
The project supports training of two graduate students and one postdoctoral researcher in advanced particle-detector technology, machine-learning reconstruction, and modern statistical analysis—skills transferable to data science, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence.
Work is performed in Batavia, Illinois, with a period of performance from August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2027. The assistance type is Project Grant.