I am presently working on two muon particle physics experiments and a cavity-based axion search experiment using quantum technologies .
The Fermilab Mu2e experiment is hoping to be the first experiment to observe a lepton-flavour violating, neutrinoless transition of a muon into an electron. Such an observation would be certain to signal new physics beyond our present understanding of fundamental particles since in the SM the rate of this decay is approximately 10-50 that of the usual muon decay producing two neutrinos.
The Fermilab Muon g-2 experiment has made the world's most precise measurement of any quantity at a particle accelerator: the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon (g-2), with a precision of 0.2 ppm. This presently differs from the SM predictions by 2 to 5 standard deviations depending on the methodology used to determine the SM value. Subsequent measurements and refinements in the SM prediction will establish unambigiously whether this is a sign of new physics or not.
To explain the fact that nobody has measured a finite neutron or proton electric dipole moment requires a yet-to-be-observed dynamical mechanism. Without this mechanism, the quarks inside protons and neutrons are required to be aligned, unnaturally, to one part in 10 billion. At the heart of this mechanism is the last undiscovered particle in the Standard Model: the axion. The axions presence is inferred through the emission of microwaves in a resonant cavity within a magnetic field. The power in these microwaves is tiny: a yocto (10-24) watt but recent advances in quantum technology make detection possible. We are building a proof-of-principle axion detector at Manchester.