But scientists are already designing experiments to detect it because, if it does occur, it could reveal intimate information about one of the most ubiquitous and mysterious particles known to science: the neutrino. This so-called neutrinoless double beta decay, has never been observed.

That is, if this process does actually happen in nature. “Our work is a more consistent calculation, and this added consistency leads to an increased probability in detecting the decay.” “To compute specific parameters for this supposed rare decay, we need to have consistent ingredients in our theory,” Hergert said. The team refined calculations for a theoretical way that certain atoms can decay, or fall apart, and the results suggest that scientists have a better likelihood of observing this decay than previously thought. (Credit: Facility for Rare Isotope Beams) New theoretical research from FRIB could help answer looming questions about the ghost-like neutrino particle, including its mass and whether it is its own antiparticle. 10, 2021, in the journal Physical Review Letters, working with Roland Wirth and Jiangming Yao, who were postdoctoral researchers at FRIB. Hergert published his latest contribution on Dec. You realize, ‘I can actually make a contribution.’ Then you want to keep making them.” And I was enjoying it,” said Hergert, who became the first in his family to earn a doctorate. “I recognized that I was good at math and theoretical physics. Along the way, he was drawn to using math to answer some of the most fundamental questions in physics.

Hergert shared his father’s love of history, but he also liked math and science and thought he’d find better career options if he pursued that path. And there was still the small matter of picking which subject to study. But he didn’t know it would launch his career trajectory at the time. Įnrolling in college would be his first step toward becoming the first member of his family to pursue a career in academia - which the FRIB and MSU faculty member said he couldn’t have done without support from relatives, friends and teachers. “I had good grades in high school and people told me, ‘Maybe you should go to college,’” said Hergert, who is an associate professor of physics at FRIB and in MSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. Back then, he never guessed he’d be one day helping solve mysteries of the universe at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at Michigan State University. Heiko Hergert grew up on a dairy farm in Germany discussing history with his father while they worked.

Neutrino particle