Iain Bisset, a doctoral student in Texas A&M University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, recently began a prestigious eight-month research fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory to pursue his thesis topic on primordial black holes and nonstandard neutrino physics. Neutrinos are very low mass, weakly interacting particles that are so difficult to detect they were nicknamed “the ghost particle.”
Texas A&M and Los Alamos have a long partnership history. Researchers from the institutions have collaborated on projects in disciplines ranging from robotics to statistics. Some of the researchers were directly supported by the LANL Collaborative Research Program Award that explicitly pairs a Texas A&M and Los Alamos researcher together to increase the number and depth of collaborations between the institutions. Texas A&M is also a founding member of the organization that acts as operations and management organization for Los Alamos.
To earn this prestigious fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Bisset developed a research proposal that originated from a collaboration supported by the Strategic Transformative Research Program (STRP) within the College of Arts and Sciences. The project brought together Dr. Bhaskar Dutta, Bisset's thesis advisor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr. Samiran Sinha of the Texas A&M Department of Statistics to develop novel approaches for model discernment in neutrino phenomenology. Phenomenology is the branch of theoretical physics concerned with developing models of new physics, which are as strongly constrained by real-world data as possible — phenomenology, the study of phenomena.
“There is a wide breadth of models in the literature that would have consequences for neutrino experiments, some of which have similar implied experimental signals,” Bisset said. “To get as much information out of the available data as possible, it is necessary to develop rigorous methods that allow us to quantitatively distinguish between the available models and determine the best way to probe them during experiments. My fellowship is focused on developing ways of doing this via both analytical and machine learning methods.”
“I was always interested in understanding things in the most reductionist way possible by reducing them to their constituent parts and interactions,” Bisset said. “When this is taken to its extreme, typically that lands the attempt at understanding somewhere in the realm of physics or mathematics.”
The same rampant curiosity pulled him toward particle physics phenomenology. “Theoretical particle physics is naturally very fundamental, and phenomenology in particular is concerned with creating physics models and constraining them as stringently as possible via available experimental data. This process of looking for ways to place strict constraints on models in addition to proposing ideas for new physics is the primary aspect of research that I find interesting.”
At Texas A&M
Bisset completed his undergraduate education at the Colorado School of Mines. During his studies, he was accepted to the Cyclotron Institute’s summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Texas A&M University.
“I enjoyed the experience and decided to apply to Texas A&M for graduate school,” he said. “I determined that the style of research done in the Department of Physics, especially the variety of high-energy physics work, aligns well with my interests.”
After Bisset finished much of his graduate coursework, he reached out to Dr. Bhaskar Dutta to be his adviser. Dutta is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Mitchell/Heep Chair in High Energy Physics, a fellow of the American Physical Society and an expert in dark matter, neutrinos and the search for new particles.
“Iain has long aspired to pursue a Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics and has demonstrated a strong commitment to this goal since joining the graduate program,” Dutta said. During Bisset’s time working in Dutta’s group, the pair met at least twice weekly to discuss developments in theoretical particle physics and cosmology. “Through his research, Iain has developed a strong foundation in theoretical particle physics and cosmology, applying advanced techniques to investigate new physics scenarios involving neutrinos, dark matter and related cosmological phenomena. His enthusiasm for the subject, intellectual curiosity and dedication to tackling challenging problems have been evident throughout his graduate career.”
Bisset became a member of Dutta’s research group, which explores fundamental questions such as the origin of dark matter, the mechanism behind tiny neutrino masses and possible connections between these sectors. The group develops theoretical models alongside experimentally testable signatures for facilities across the world.
In addition to Bisset, Dutta’s group has also included Aparajitha Kathikeyan and Adrian Thompson, both of whom recently received the highly competitive Neutrino Theory Network postdoctoral fellowship through the Department of Energy.
At Los Alamos, Bisset will be working under Dr. Richard Van de Water, a 2023 fellow of the facility and internationally recognized expert in particle physics, best known for his experiments in neutrinos. Both Dutta and Bisset have previously collaborated with Van de Water, Bisset referring to his own contribution as a “small theoretical projection” the expert asked him to perform.
Bisset said Van de Water was a natural choice for him due to the past collaborations and the wide range of work Van de Water and his team has done in neutrino and dark matter physics.
After Texas A&M
At Los Alamos, Bisset will have access to state-of-the-art computational facilities for his research, and the members of the Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills detector in the Lujan Neutron Science Center. Bisset’s Los Alamos fellowship ends in February 2027, and he plans to graduate the following summer.
He is uncertain of his future career path. “Post-doctorate positions typically open in September, but it’s possible that my time at Los Alamos could give me more options,” Bisset said. “I will be looking primarily for positions in theory and any other interesting tangential areas of research.”