Matthew Osbiston
Second year PhD student in elementary particle physics at University of Warwick
Research Interests
I am a PhD student in the Physics Department at University of Warwick under the supervision of Dr John Marshall. My research is centred on one of three main physics goals of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.
"DUNE will look for the gigantic streams of neutrinos emitted by exploding stars to watch the formation of black holes and neutron stars in real time, to learn more about these mysterious objects in space."
DUNE is a next generation neutrino experiment in the design and construction phase, with plans to install large liquid argon detectors at Fermilab, Chicago and SURF, South Dakota. Fermilab is the second largest accelerator-beam complex in the world, with the ability to create neutrinos of energy in the GeV scale. DUNE plans to use this beam line for it's neutrino experiment, using state-of-the-art Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPC) in an effort to improve our understanding of neutrino oscillations (in particular making precision measurements of delta CP) and CP violation in the lepton sector.
Furthermore, my developments and work will form part of the UK's contributions to distributed computing and reconstruction software. In particular, I will be using simulation of background decays and particle interaction from a set of models. This is a multisite process of particle generation, particle propagation and detector effect simulation. For my work, the low energy regime is important and so I make use of the particle generator, MARLEY. I will use these simulations to refine a multi-algorithm pattern recognition software named Pandora for reconstruction of low energy supernova neutrinos. I will employ deep learning and neural networks in several algorithms for a chain of reconstruction tasks such as identifying interaction vertices and cluster creation, splitting and merging decisions. Overall, the aim is to improve Pandora's efficiency for particle reconstruction in DUNE's far detector.
Pandora algorithms provide an automated reconstruction of neutrino interactions in the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPC) being operated and developed for the short- and long-baseline neutrino physics programmes.
You can learn more about DUNE here: https://www.dunescience.org
An interesting paper which gives background on Pandora:
Additional PhD experiences include:
- Interviewing and being interviewed by fellow PhD students and postdocs for a high quality showcase video of academic life
- Planning and teaching first year undergraduate seminars covering content tackled in weekly problem sheets. These are marked by myself and feedback is delivered to students .
- Budgeting and booking conference trips in the UK (Lancaster/Bristol/Oxford) and overseas (CERN, Generva/Fermilab, Chicago)
- Planning and delivering conference and working groups talks centred on my research projects, to crowds of 100+ of academics and postdocs
- Completing Academic Development Courses such as APP PGR, covering the pedagogy of Higher Education Teaching
- Completing variety of doctoral skill courses including subject specific content
Teaching
I currently run seminars under PX161Link opens in a new Tutorial which covers subjects such as Classical Mechanics, Special Relativity, Electromagnetism, and Quantum phenomena. I mark students work and give feedback during their seminars.
External Interests
I have been part of University of Warwick Chamber Choir since October 2021 and attend weekly rehearsal. I have been part of a variety of concerts and have sung in Warwick Arts Centre, All Saints Church in Leamington and St Nicholas in Kenilworth. Furthermore, I have sung at many degree graduations, an opportunity I've been very fond of especially as I had the privilege of singing at my own in July 2022. You can find some videos of our performances here.
Additionally, I have sang with University of Warwick Chorus on a few occasions.
I have been part of Warwick A Cappella Society since October 2018 and have sung in a variety of styles of groups such as Classical, Pop, Barbershop, and Musical Theatre. I have been the secretary for the society since October 2022 and in April 2023, I was elected as the Vice-President. I have also held the role of Events and Workshops Manager. You can find videos here.
I have been a member of WACA's flagship competition group, "The Leamingtones" since October 2019 and have performed across the country and competed at the International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella, getting through to the UK Final in Wimbledon, London in 2023. We have recorded an album with a variety of songs and we have many songs from different languages in our repertoire. As of the academic year 2023/2024, I will be the Group Manager and work alongside the Musical Director, George Collier. You can find performances here.
On another note, I enjoy fitness activities such as long-distance running and regularly attending the gym.
I am also an avid photographer.
Write to:
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
Contact Details:
Office: PS0.14
Supervisor: Dr John Marshall
E-Mail: matthew.osbiston@warwick.ac.uk
Links:
The homepageLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowhomepage of the Pandora pattern-recognition project
Extra-curricular:
The homepageLink opens in a new window of the Warwick A Cappella Society
