Lee Thompson

I am a member of the Experimental Particle Physics and Particle Astrophysics Group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield.

I spend my research time studying neutrinos. The neutrino is a fundamental particle with no charge and almost no mass. These elusive particles rarely interact with matter and can pass straight through the Earth unaltered. By studying low energy neutrinos we are able to improve our understanding of neutrino masses and of neutrino oscillations whereby one type of neutrino becomes another in free flight. The detection of high energy neutrinos can help our understanding of distant, massive astrophysical objects and may even help us identify the origin of dark matter which makes up around 25% of all the mass in the Universe.