Physics Colloquium

The interior of the Earth remains mysteries.  It is some 6400 km to the center of the Earth, but we have only drilled 12 km deep and not yet reached the mantle.  Seismologists have imaged Earth's interior and defined its first order physical structures.  The compositions of these structures are unknown, at some level, and must be interpreted as we do not have techniques to measure their chemistry.

Anti-neutrinos emitted from radioactive isotopes inside the Earth, geo-neutrino, bring unique and direct information on the Earth's composition, which relate to the fundamental mysteries of its heat balance and thermal evolution.  KamLAND experiment (Japan) has been stably observing geoneutrino with highest sensitivity since it made the world's first observation in 2005.  To date, two experiments (KamLAND and Borexino) have set limits on the global flux of geo-neutrino that has in turn constrained the range of acceptable models for the Earth's composition.  "Neutrino Geoscience" has provided a new tool to study the Earth, and build cross-disciplinary bridges between particle physics and geoscience communities.  I will describe progresses and discuss future prospects of new approaches to understand the Earth's interior.

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/82624277023

Webinar ID: 826 2427 7023