Research
Research
Experimental high-energy physics with reactor and atmospheric neutrinos — precision oscillation, low-background detector systems, and deep-underground muon physics.
Interests
- Reactor neutrino oscillation
- Precision measurement of \(\theta_{13}\) and \(\Delta m^2_{32}\) through rate and spectral analyses of reactor antineutrinos.
- Neutrino detection techniques
- Inverse-beta-decay detection via neutron capture on hydrogen, and complementary channels for liquid-scintillator experiments.
- High-energy cosmic-ray muon physics
- Underground muon flux, hadronic-interaction model constraints, and muon tomography of large-scale structures.
- Low-background control
- Mitigation of cosmogenic and environmental radioactive backgrounds in deep-laboratory detectors.
Experiments
Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment (since 2018)
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment achieved unprecedented precision in measuring the neutrino mixing angle \(\theta_{13}\). Detectors near the Daya Bay nuclear reactors (Guangdong) combined reactor-produced antineutrinos with gadolinium-doped liquid-scintillator technology to suppress cosmic-ray backgrounds. The 2012 result established a nonzero \(\theta_{13}\) at more than 5\(\sigma\), resolving the last unknown neutrino-oscillation mixing parameter and laying groundwork for studies of matter–antimatter asymmetry. Daya Bay's legacy includes constraints on sterile neutrinos, detector R&D advances, and the scientific foundation for next-generation experiments such as JUNO.
Homepage dayabay.ihep.ac.cn
Jinping Neutrino Experiment (JNE) (since 2016)
The China Jinping Neutrino Experiment is housed in the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) — one of the world's deepest research sites, with a 6,700 m-water-equivalent overburden and a cosmic-ray muon flux below 0.2 muons/m²/day. JNE plans a large liquid-scintillator detector (2,000 t fiducial for solar neutrinos; ~3,000 t effective for geo- and supernova-relic neutrinos) aiming at high-precision measurements of solar-neutrino fluxes, geo-neutrino rates, and searches for supernova bursts and dark-matter-induced neutrinos. The exceptionally low reactor and cosmic backgrounds enable target-specific probes — CNO solar neutrinos, vacuum-to-matter oscillation transition, and Earth's U/Th ratio. A one-ton prototype at CJPL-I has characterized backgrounds and validated detector technologies; a five-hundred-ton detector is being deployed at CJPL-II by end of 2026.
Homepage jinping.hep.tsinghua.edu.cn
Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) (since 2026)
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory is a 20 kt liquid-scintillator detector located 700 m underground in Guangdong, ~53 km from the Yangjiang and Taishan nuclear power plants. JUNO's primary goal is the determination of the neutrino mass ordering via high-resolution spectral measurement of reactor antineutrinos, together with sub-percent precision on the oscillation parameters \(\sin^2\theta_{12}\), \(\Delta m^2_{21}\), and \(\Delta m^2_{31}\). Its broad physics program also covers solar, atmospheric, geo-, and supernova neutrinos, the diffuse supernova-neutrino background, and searches for proton decay and exotic phenomena.
Homepage juno.ihep.cas.cn
Current projects
- Precision measurement of reactor-antineutrino oscillation parameters at Daya Bay
- Principal Investigator — National Natural Science Foundation of China, Youth Science Fund (2023–present). Ongoing.
- Research start-up fund
- Principal Investigator — Hunan University (2025–present). Ongoing.