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Peter Denton

@jazzwhiz.bsky.social
209 followers 118 following 434 posts

Theoretical neutrino and astroparticle physicist Brookhaven Lab. He/him. Partnered. Thoughts my own.

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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New results from JUNO. This includes 207 days (previously: 59 days) along with TAO (their ancillary detector near the flux measuring the spectrum). arxiv.org/abs/2609.37895 Their precision on the solar parameters improves (orange->blue).
A plot showing the preferred "solar" parameters Delta m^2_21 and sin^2theta_12. The older results from solar neutrinos (SuperK and SNO) weakly prefer rather smaller Delta m^2_21 while the KamLAND results confidently claims a larger value. The solar data has a good measurement of theta12 while KamLAND does not. The new results from JUNO at 59 days and 207 days agree with each other. They agree with KamLAND's measurement of Delta m^2_21, but are slightly trending downward with more data. On theta12 the JUNO results are consistent with the solar number (and also the KamLAND number due to its large uncertainty).
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It's cool to see the DUNE cavern starting to fill up with stuff
A photo of a huge hole in the ground with many giant, red, beams laid out on the ground
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
University people, please share with your graduate admissions people
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This is so gross. "AI just did it" "What prompt and what model?" "Errr, actually we had a bunch of results verified by mathematicians, and used the approach that you told us was a good idea. Oh and the answer is unintelligible." So the whole "AI for math" narrative is starting to unwind.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Oscar the grouch? Or Jabba the Hutt?
A compost bin with way too much grass piled in it. There's a cardboard "mouth" and some mulch "eyes" on the green blob
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Not only does IceCube exclude the standard Higgsino explanation of LZ, now apparently KamLAND excludes the absorption explanation. I guess while the DM experimentalists were becoming neutrino experimentalists, the DM theorists forgot to also become neutrino theorists too.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
51 self cites in a conference proceeding, it's a new world record! (They cited 70 papers in total.)
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Cat stretching on a shelf meant for pots and pans
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope NASA launch went well! A month or so for it to settle to L2 and then commissioning, but another great space science launch!! Ahhhh!!!
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Reposted by Peter Denton
INSPIRE HEP @inspirehep.net · 27/08/2026
Starting August 2026, new records across INSPIRE will use only the parent-form of the institution name, e.g., “Harvard U. (main)” instead of “Harvard U., Dept. Math.” or “Cambridge U. (main)” instead “Cambridge U., DAMTP”. blog.inspirehep.net/2026/08/info...
blog.inspirehep.net
Information about changes to Institutions – INSPIRE-HEP Blog
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
xkcd.com/3286/ Alt text: "The one that sounds like the oracle at the center of the galaxy where the hero travels to hear a prophecy is probably Brookhaven National Laboratory's now-dismantled COSMOTRON." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmotron
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Sunset at landing
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Reposted by Peter Denton
arXiv @arxiv.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🚨Attention All Users 🚨 We'll be performing scheduled work on ORCID features for arXiv.org today. All other services remain available. Check status.arxiv.org for updates
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Leona Woods was at BNL for four years. In her honor we have the Leona Woods Distinguished Postdoctoral Lectureship Award leonawoodsbnl.phy.bnl.gov
leonawoodsbnl.phy.bnl.gov
Leona Woods Lectureship Award
Applicants should be current postdocs within 7 years of the Ph.D. and have achievements in broadly-defined areas of interest to the BNL physics department: experimental and theoretical nuclear and high energy physics (including astrophysics and cosmology).
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I also wrote in the Encyclopedia of Particle Physics, the chapter on neutrino oscillations www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap... People should know that the majority of the chapters are freely available on the arXiv, mine is here: arxiv.org/abs/2501.08374
A screenshot of the abstract page of my chapter. Titled "Neutrino oscillations in the three flavor paradigm"
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Reposted by Peter Denton
arXiv @arxiv.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
🚨Attention All Users 🚨 Scheduled maintenance for arXiv.org on: Aug 4th, 5AM - 7AM EDT Aug 5th, 4AM - 7AM EDT Maintenance may cause low responsiveness on August 4th & minimal disruptions on August 5th, including login. Check status.arxiv.org for updates
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
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Reposted by Peter Denton
CERN @cern.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The puzzle of neutrinos, seventy years on Theorised in 1930 and discovered in 1956, the elusive neutrino still keeps many of its secrets, inspiring research efforts at CERN and around the world. Find out more: home.cern/the-puzzle-o... #Neutrino70 #Neutrino #ParticlePhysics #Science
Wolfgang Pauli in 1955, with an image of the telegram he received the following year informing him of the discovery of the neutrino. (Image: Wolfgang Pauli Archive/CERN)
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Amazing poster design makes a huge difference at a poster session. See these amazing astro posters in the thread below. Particle people need to up our game.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
A NICE paper with my colleague as first author. Congrats Yves, Anna, and the rest of the team
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Hello @ryannorth.ca
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
On my way to Santa Barbara to lecture on neutrino physics at the International Neutrino Summer School To get there we're driving an airplane over cars and under a tram (PHX)
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
More from Neutrino. MINOS+, which has stopped running, has done a reanalysis. They disfavor maximal theta23 mixing at 90%; when combined with reactor this rises to 3 sigma. No one has clearly disfavored maximal mixing to date, this is quite interesting. The smiley face is so back!(?)
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
New DESI analysis weakens their preference for a tension: arxiv.org/abs/2606.23936 "For w0waCDM, DESI-only analyses with the bispectrum shift dark energy parameters toward ΛCDM, staying consistent with a cosmological constant within 1σ." 1/3
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I like this plot from NOvA (cf Zoya's slides at Neutrino) It really highlights the power of combining different measurement channels
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I started documenting the errors in the slides at the Neutrino conference; there are so many. Theorists are doing worse than experimentalists so far, we'll see how this goes.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Your regular reminder that Wilks' theorem is often wrong, especially for neutrino things. Wilks' theorem says that this 1 sigma line should be at 1, but it is close to 2. From Yichen Li's slides at Neutrino.
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Reposted by Peter Denton
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The no-hair theorem implies a no-threads corollary.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
A nice paper from NOvA discussing how their measurements of the atmospheric mass ordering interplay with JUNOs. Also neat because it is the first experimental paper to use my NuFast code. arxiv.org/abs/2606.14121
arxiv.org
Determining Neutrino Mass Ordering with NOvA and Upcoming JUNO Measurements
NOvA has reported a significance of mass ordering determination using ten years of data together with external constraints from reactor-based experiments. The JUNO collaboration is poised to provide a...
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Peter's Acronym of the Day: SPADE: SPlit And Delay Embeddings I say, call a spade a spade, which is just what they did. A+ work. arxiv.org/abs/2606.11304
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Peter's Acronym of the Day: MATCHA: MATChing HEFT Amplitudes arxiv.org/abs/2606.11170 It's a bit squiffy, using only one letter from HEFT, but not the h that would work perfectly in MATCHing makes it look like HEFT doesn't even belong in MATCHA lol
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Paper day! It's Henry's first paper which is always special to be a part of. Also with Julia. 🧪 "The Future of Lepton Flavor" looks at what kinds of measurements might lead to actual insights on the flavor puzzle: why all the masses and mixings are what they are. arxiv.org/abs/2606.05291
arxiv.org
The Future of Lepton Flavor
The flavor puzzle remains one of the biggest open questions in particle theory to date and upcoming results from neutrino experiments will have a large impact on its potential solution in the future. ...
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
#bloomscrolling
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
#bloomscrolling
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
This slide from Lina Necib @linoush95.bsky.social on the improvements in the rotation curve of the Milky Way from GAIA data is stunning. The whole talk from the Mitchell conference is here: indico.cern.ch/event/164388...
Two plots. One is from 2017 and shows the velocity vs radius (e.g. rotation curve) for the Milky Way. The data is super noisy with error bars often at the 50 km/s or greater level. The second plot is from Lina Necib and collaborators in 2024 showing the same thing with Gaia data. The error bars are vastly smaller, maybe just a few km/s in most of the parameter space, and is generally smooth.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
An interesting case of science journalism seeming to truly impact science funding: the NSF funding for a few universities was blacklisted. After the Dan Garisto article @dangaristo.bsky.social highlighting this, 3/4 of the unis started getting some money within a day www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Exclusive: NSF puts new research grants to top universities on hold
US science funder once again restricts awards to Harvard University and other institutions.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Neutrinos from @xkcd.com: xkcd.com/3249/ For the first solar neutrino detection, the pool would have to be filled with dry cleaning fluid, yuck!
xkcd.com
Neutrino Project
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Peter's Acronym of the Day: SIRENA -- Sum-Integral REductioN Algorithm arxiv.org/abs/2605.06775
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Reposted by Peter Denton
Chris Quigg @chrisquigg.com · 11/05/2026
Not too late to register for the 2026 edition of the International Neutrino Summer School at UC Santa Barbara from June 29 to July 10 indico.global/event/16507/...
indico.global
17th International Neutrino Summer School 2026
We are looking forward to hosting the 2026 edition of the International Neutrino Summer School at UC Santa Barbara from June 29 to July 10. The school will cover topics spanning theoretical and experi...
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Me to the cat at least once a day: "When is it your turn to do the dishes?"
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
The Einstein-Rosen bridge
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Fermilab has been without power for about a day. I think they should try candles
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Peter's Acronym of the Day is both real fun and real terrible at the same time: SUBMARINE: SUB-Mev dArk matter diRect detectIon using bilayer grapheNE Ah yes, "A" from "dark" that's the letter I'd pick arxiv.org/abs/2604.21969 (The authors have a video of their work too!)
arxiv.org
Dive deeper with SUBMARINE: SUB-Mev dArk matter diRect detectIon using bilayer grapheNE
Novel target materials with anisotropic response will play a key role in detecting low-mass dark matter in upcoming experiments. Bilayer graphene is one such material that has been proposed for the de...
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Bumbler putting in a hard day's work on my future apple pie
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Today we're setting a record for high temperatures. Less than a week from now we're setting it for low temperatures.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I asked chatgpt if it thinks a paper I saw on the arXiv was written by LLMs. It then offered to do a deeper dive by comparing it to previous papers by the same author. It then proceeds to compare it to one of my papers stating that the author of the original paper is me?!?
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
A nice writeup about my project with an undergrad student last year. We were the first to measure the density of the Sun with neutrino data, which was pretty cool! Charlie Gourley did a great job on the project! phys.org/news/2025-03...
phys.org
Neutrinos could tell us about the inside of the sun and establish density structure
Neutrinos generated through solar fusion reactions travel effortlessly through the sun's dense core. Each specific fusion process creates neutrinos with distinctive signatures, potentially providing a...
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
There is some irony here in that one could use the tools of the paper to study the citation curve.
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Peter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Fermilab in an email today: "We're going to look in everyone's cars more often because Americans keep shooting each other." (paraphrase)
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