In the spotlight: Jeff Tseng

Professor Jeff Tseng is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. A particle physicist with a focus on supernova neutrinos, he has co-developed software to monitor the LSST Camera.

You’re a particle physicist – how are you involved with the Rubin LSST?

There is a wide range of particle physics-related topics on which Rubin LSST can shed light, such as dark energy, dark matter, and – where I spend most of my time – on neutrinos as they are produced (for instance) in core-collapse supernovae.

What excites you about the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)?

The large-scale survey aspect is the most exciting for me – its relatively unbiased observations offer the ability to study phenomena beyond those which simply shout the loudest, so to speak, and study those ‘loud’ phenomena (such as a supernova) more comprehensively. There is huge potential for discovery. Plus, data itself is exciting, and sets one's mind racing as to how to see physics with it.

 Can you sum up what motivates you to do the work you do?

Understanding the unreasonable reasonableness of the Universe. 

Please wow us with a physics-related fact.

A core-collapse supernova can be so bright it outshines its own host galaxy, but the light (i.e., the electromagnetic radiation) represents something like only 1% of its energy output. 99% comes out in the form of neutrinos. And yet, because neutrinos interact so feebly with other matter, most detectors (which can be huge) can only hope to see a burst of neutrinos from a supernova in the Galaxy. We only recently began to build detectors large enough to be sensitive to supernovae in nearby galaxies.

 What’s the most challenging aspect of working on the LSST? 

Astrophysicists and particle physics work in different ways, so on the one hand, I'm learning a lot about how my astrophysics colleagues do their research, while on the other, my instincts are to approach the data as if I was working on a neutrino or collider experiment. It's no surprise that I've spent most of my time so far on LSST:UK working on camera software; close to the data-taking apparatus is my comfort zone.

What's the best thing you've learned while working on LSST:UK?

See my previous answer!

How did you get into your field?

My first steps in particle physics (since I'm not an astrophysicist) came through a summer undergraduate research project at Caltech on the MACRO experiment, which at the time was being built to search for magnetic monopoles. But I also had an earlier interest in computer science; I had originally entered university thinking I was going to major in that field, but switched to physics because I found special relativity so much more intriguing. Particle physicists usually specialise in some skill they bring to their experimental collaborations, and computing and algorithms became my speciality.

 What's the best thing about working in this area of physics?

Being able to perceive symmetries in nature, simple things in the midst of complex phenomena. And of course that ‘unreasonable reasonableness of the Universe.’

 Do you have any advice for those aspiring to do the kind of work you do?

Make sure you're very interested in knowing answers to questions in your field, because there will be times you hate what you're doing, and you wonder why you’re doing it. This applies particularly to postgraduate study.