Rhiannon Jones

Dr Rhiannon Jones serves as a Lecturer in Experimental Particle Physics within the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sheffield. She is an active member of the Particle Physics and Particle Astrophysics Research Cluster (PPPA), contributing to major international collaborations including the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) and Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) project. Her work focuses on advancing liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) technologies for neutrino detection, with responsibilities spanning detector development, data analysis, and physics interpretation across multiple experimental frameworks.

Her research program centers on experimental neutrino physics, specifically targeting neutrino interaction measurements, detector response optimization, and background mitigation in LArTPC systems. Key investigation areas include scintillation light characterization for particle identification, reconstruction of low-energy electron events, simulation of detector performance using GPU-accelerated computing, and analysis of cross-section uncertainties affecting supernova neutrino studies. Her work bridges particle physics, nuclear physics, and computational science to address fundamental questions about neutrino properties, oscillation parameters, and potential sterile neutrino signatures.

Analysis of her publication record from 2018-2024 reveals consistent contributions to neutrino experiment infrastructure and physics analysis. Early work established foundations in joint oscillation analyses (VALOR) and SBND detector construction, while recent efforts have driven DUNE Phase II development, vertical drift detector technology, and innovative data processing techniques using deep neural networks. Her publications demonstrate growing leadership in technical design reporting, white paper authorship, and cross-collaboration studies addressing sterile neutrino phenomenology and detector performance optimization.

The Particle Physics and Particle Astrophysics Research Cluster (PPPA) provides Dr Jones's primary institutional framework at Sheffield, connecting her to a multidisciplinary team engaged in detector development, data acquisition systems, and physics analysis for both accelerator-based experiments and astroparticle physics. Within PPPA, she contributes specifically to the experimental neutrino program, working on near-detector calibration systems for SBND and far-detector technologies for DUNE, with strong operational ties to Fermilab and international partner institutions.