There is a coterie of scientists at Wichita State University who are involved in a global effort to explore the secrets of the universe; three men whose work forwards WSU's vision to become a national center for research and applied learning.

Professor Nickolas Solomey, Associate Professor Holger Meyer and Assistant Professor Mathew Muether are particle physicists, and together they form the largest experimental group in Wichita State's Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics. All three are deeply involved with Fermilab, the premier national high-energy physics laboratory. The core of physics instruction and research at WSU revolves around their work on the NOvA, Fermilab’s flagship high-energy experiment.

The NOvA experiment

The focus of NOvA is the neutrino, a “ghost particle” first theorized in 1930 and discovered in 1956. It’s a billion times more abundant than other types of subatomic particles in the universe, yet it seems to interact with nothing at all. Scientists term it “weakly interacting” because it has so little mass it’s barely affected by gravity or magnetism, and only about one in 10 billion neutrinos that passes through the Earth actually reacts to other matter on the journey.

The NOvA experiment beams high-intensity particles from the facility near Chicago through the earth to a huge detector array in northern Minnesota, more than 800 km away. They’re looking for oscillations in neutrinos, which will help scientists understand the role they played in the evolution of the universe and their contribution to its mass.

WSU is one of nearly 40 universities and laboratories around the world collaborating on NOvA, which recently completed its build-out phase and is now collecting data. The experiment will run for 6-10 years before it generates enough data for researchers to make an impacted scientific statement about neutrinos. Meanwhile, researchers like Solomey, Meyer and Muether are studying that data and using it in their classrooms. The WSU physics group isn’t developing direct applications, however – their primary goal is to advance fundamental knowledge.

Spin-offs

Physics experiments often come with big price tags – Fermilab’s budget, for example, exceeds $300 million a year. Solomey says that politicians frequently ask about the practical benefits that justify such expenses, but the answer isn’t always concrete because the objective of a particle physics experiment is to answer the question at hand – then the next one.

In the quest to expand human knowledge, however, there are practical benefits. High energy physics has played a role in the development of big-data computer technology and superconducting magnets used in hospital CAT and PET scanners, for example.

“Without the understanding we’ve gained from basic particle physics, much of our knowledge would be hard to apply,” Solomey said. “Men like the Kochs or Elon Musk, who have made their fortunes on applied science, understand that you have to do fundamental research before you do the applied stuff.”

Those benefits are incidental for particle physics researchers, however, who are focused on the pure science. As Meyer put it: “Everyone mentions the Teflon pan as the famous spin-off of going into space. I like Teflon pans, but that’s not why I’m doing particle physics.”

Next steps

Researchers like Solomey, Meyer and Muether are always looking in three directions at once: to the past, analyzing data from their most recent projects; at their present research; and to the future, discerning the next question to ask and planning the next experiment. That pattern applies to the Wichita State physics group as well.

Muether is the now. He’s new at WSU – this is his first semester teaching outside of graduate school. A St. Louis native, Muether studied undergraduate math and physics at the University of Missouri and earned his graduate degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He’s been a research associate on the NOvA project for four years.

“I decided to join the physics group here to carry on that research,” Muether said. “I wanted to get involved with Wichita State because everyone I talked to was feeling energized about the university’s new vision and about strengthening the research profile. I like to build things up – that’s what I do, and I see a chance to do that here.”

The future, according to all three professors, is their students.

“My big hope is to get more undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students all working on this research because it’s really interesting stuff and a great training field,” Muether said.

Seven years ago, when Solomey came to WSU, there were only a dozen physics majors. Today there are more than 60. Because physics offers a competitive foundation for careers beyond science research, the department has implemented double-majors across colleges to offer more flexibility. Appealing to future scientists takes care of itself, however. According to Meyer, who is the physics undergraduate adviser, some students are drawn to physics for its own sake.

“Usually it’s the kids who wonder why something happens or how something works,” Meyer said. “How do I get somebody interested in physics? The honest answer is, I don’t usually have to do too much because physics is so exciting.”

That is exactly what attracted Muether to physics, he said, and is the motivation for those who make physics research a career.

“All the physicists at Fermilab wake up and go to work because they’re really into this physics stuff,” he said. “They eat, sleep and breathe it. They want to know the answers.”

Tied to the future of physics at Wichita State is the future of NOvA. Even though that experiment has just begun, Solomey, Meyer, Muether and all the other scientists involved are looking ahead to the next step.

“No matter what we find with NOvA,” Meyer said, “there will be questions to follow up. There will be something beyond NOvA, and we want to be part of that as well.”

For more information about the physics program at Wichita State University, contact Holger Meyer at 316-978-3993 or holger.meyer@wichita.edu, or drop by his office in the basement of Jabara Hall, Room 039 – he says his door is always open.