I'm a PhD candidate in experimental particle physics at the University of Regina. I work at the interface of hardware, calibration, and data analysis, building both detectors and the frameworks used to understand them.
I contribute to the Water Cherenkov Test Experiment (WCTE) and related Hyper-Kamiokande efforts, studying particle identification and hadronic interactions in water. My research focuses on proton and kaon interactions in water to improve hadronic modeling for next-generation neutrino experiments.
Hyper-Kamiokande is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino experiment in Japan designed to measure CP violation in the lepton sector, determine neutrino mass ordering, and study neutrino oscillation parameters with unprecedented precision. It is based on a massive underground water Cherenkov detector instrumented with high-efficiency photomultiplier tubes and exposed to the J-PARC neutrino beam. Beyond oscillation physics, Hyper-K will perform searches for proton decay and observe astrophysical neutrinos, making it one of the central experiments in contemporary neutrino physics.
The Intermediate Water Cherenkov Detector is a near-detector component of Hyper-Kamiokande designed to reduce systematic uncertainties associated with neutrino flux and interaction modeling. Positioned at an intermediate baseline, it samples neutrinos at different off-axis angles by vertically scanning the beam profile. This configuration allows detailed measurements of neutrino interaction cross sections in water, directly constraining oscillation analyses in the far detector.
The Water Cherenkov Test Experiment is a beam test at CERN's T9 beamline designed to characterize detector response to beam particles in a controlled environment. By exposing a water Cherenkov detector to beams of tagged gammas, electrons, muons, pions, kaons, and protons over a broad momentum range, WCTE provides essential calibration data for Hyper-K and IWCD. The experiment enables precise studies of particle identification, light yield, hadronic interactions in water, and detector modeling.
EMPHATIC (Experiment to Measure the Production of Hadrons At a Testbeam In Chicagoland) is a hadron production experiment at Fermilab focused on measuring particle production cross sections relevant to neutrino beam flux predictions. By studying hadron yields from thin targets in controlled test beams, EMPHATIC provides inputs that reduce uncertainties in neutrino flux simulations for long-baseline oscillation experiments.
Supervisor: Dr. Nikolay Kolev · Co-Supervisor: Dr. Mauricio Barbi
Thesis: "A Study of Mirrors for an Aerogel Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detector"
Email: bferrazzi@uregina.ca
Address: University of Regina, Department of Physics, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S 0A2, Canada