Christopher Walter, Professor  

Christopher Walter

Office Location: 271 Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone: (919) 660-2535
Email Address: chris.walter@duke.edu
Web Page: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~cwalter/

Specialties:
Experimental high energy physics

Education:
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1997
M.S., California Institute of Technology, 1991
B.A., University of California - Santa Cruz, 1989

Research Categories: Experimental Particle Physics, Neutrino Physics, Particle-Astrophysics, Observational Cosmology

Current projects: The Super-Kamiokande Experiment, The T2K Experiment, The Hyper-Kamiokande Experiment, The LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration

Areas of Interest:
Experimental Particle Physics
Neutrino Physics
Particle-Astrophysics
Observational Cosmology

Teaching (Fall 2023):

  • Physics 89s.02, First-year seminar (top) Synopsis
    Physics 150, TuTh 08:30 AM-09:45 AM

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Harada, M; Abe, K; Bronner, C; Hayato, Y; Hiraide, K; Hosokawa, K; Ieki, K; Ikeda, M; Kameda, J; Kanemura, Y; Kaneshima, R; Kashiwagi, Y; Kataoka, Y; Miki, S; Mine, S; Miura, M; Moriyama, S; Nakano, Y; Nakahata, M; Nakayama, S; Noguchi, Y; Okamoto, K; Sato, K; Sekiya, H; Shiba, H; Shimizu, K; Shiozawa, M; Sonoda, Y; Suzuki, Y; Takeda, A; Takemoto, Y; Takenaka, A; Tanaka, H; Watanabe, S; Yano, T; Han, S; Kajita, T; Okumura, K; Tashiro, T; Tomiya, T; Wang, X; Yoshida, S; Megias, GD; Fernandez, P; Labarga, L; Ospina, N; Zaldivar, B; Pointon, BW; Kearns, E; Raaf, JL; Wan, L; Wester, T; Bian, J; Griskevich, NJ; Locke, S; Smy, MB; Sobel, HW; Takhistov, V; Yankelevich, A; Hill, J; Lee, SH; Moon, DH; Park, RG; Bodur, B; Scholberg, K; Walter, CW; Beauchêne, A; Drapier, O; Giampaolo, A; Mueller, TA; Santos, AD; Paganini, P; Quilain, B; Ishizuka, T; Nakamura, T; Jang, JS; Learned, JG; Choi, K; Iovine, N; Cao, S; Anthony, LHV; Martin, D; Scott, M; Sztuc, AA; Uchida, Y; Berardi, V; Catanesi, MG; Radicioni, E; Calabria, NF; Langella, A; Machado, LN; De Rosa, G; Collazuol, G; Iacob, F; Lamoureux, M; Mattiazzi, M; Ludovici, L; Gonin, M; Pronost, G; Fujisawa, C, Search for Astrophysical Electron Antineutrinos in Super-Kamiokande with 0.01% Gadolinium-loaded Water, The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 951 no. 2 (July, 2023), pp. L27-L27, American Astronomical Society [doi]  [abs].
  2. Troxel, MA; Lin, C; Park, A; Hirata, C; Mandelbaum, R; Jarvis, M; Choi, A; Givans, J; Higgins, M; Sanchez, B; Yamamoto, M; Awan, H; Chiang, J; Doré, O; Walter, CW; Zhang, T; Cohen-Tanugi, J; Gawiser, E; Hearin, A; Heitmann, K; Ishak, M; Kovacs, E; Mao, YY; Wood-Vasey, M, A joint Roman Space Telescope and Rubin Observatory synthetic wide-field imaging survey, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 522 no. 2 (June, 2023), pp. 2801-2820, Oxford University Press (OUP) [doi]  [abs].
  3. Harada, M; Abe, K; Bronner, C; Hayato, Y; Hiraide, K; Hosokawa, K; Ieki, K; Ikeda, M; Kameda, J; Kanemura, Y; Kaneshima, R; Kashiwagi, Y; Kataoka, Y; Miki, S; Mine, S; Miura, M; Moriyama, S; Nakano, Y; Nakahata, M; Nakayama, S; Noguchi, Y; Okamoto, K; Sato, K; Sekiya, H; Shiba, H; Shimizu, K; Shiozawa, M; Sonoda, Y; Suzuki, Y; Takeda, A; Takemoto, Y; Takenaka, A; Tanaka, H; Watanabe, S; Yano, T; Han, S; Kajita, T; Okumura, K; Tashiro, T; Tomiya, T; Wang, X; Yoshida, S; Megias, GD; Fernandez, P; Labarga, L; Ospina, N; Zaldivar, B; Pointon, BW; Kearns, E; Raaf, JL; Wan, L; Wester, T; Bian, J; Griskevich, NJ; Locke, S; Smy, MB; Sobel, HW; Takhistov, V; Yankelevich, A; Hill, J; Lee, SH; Moon, DH; Park, RG; Bodur, B; Scholberg, K; Walter, CW; Beauchene, A; Drapier, O; Giampaolo, A; Mueller, TA; Santos, AD; Paganini, P; Quilain, B; Ishizuka, T; Nakamura, T; Jang, JS; Learned, JG; Choi, K; Iovine, N; Cao, S; Anthony, LHV; Martin, D; Scott, M; Sztuc, AA; Uchida, Y; Berardi, V; Catanesi, MG; Radicioni, E; Calabria, NF; Langella, A; Machado, LN; Rosa, GD; Collazuol, G; Iacob, F; Lamoureux, M; Mattiazzi, M; Ludovici, L; Gonin, M; Pronost, G; Fujisawa, C; Maekawa, Y; Nishimura, Y; Okazaki, R; Akutsu, R; Friend, M; Hasegawa, T; Ishida, T; Kobayashi, T; Jakkapu, M; Matsubara, T; Nakadaira, T; Nakamura, K; Oyama, Y; Sakashita, K; Sekiguchi, T; Tsukamoto, T; Bhuiyan, N; Burton, GT; Lodovico, FD; Gao, J; Goldsack, A; Katori, T; Migenda, J; Xie, Z; Zsoldos, S; Kotsar, Y; Ozaki, H; Suzuki, AT; Takagi, Y; Takeuchi, Y; Feng, J; Feng, L; Hu, JR; Hu, Z; Kikawa, T; Mori, M; Nakaya, T; Wendell, RA; Yasutome, K; Jenkins, SJ; McCauley, N; Mehta, P; Tarrant, A; Fukuda, Y; Itow, Y; Menjo, H; Ninomiya, K; Lagoda, J; Lakshmi, SM; Mandal, M; Mijakowski, P; Prabhu, YS; Zalipska, J; Jia, M; Jiang, J; Jung, CK; Wilking, MJ; Yanagisawa, C; Hino, Y; Ishino, H; Kitagawa, H; Koshio, Y; Nakanishi, F; Sakai, S; Tada, T; Tano, T; Barr, G; Barrow, D; Cook, L; Samani, S; Wark, D; Holin, A; Nova, F; Yang, BS; Yang, JY; Yoo, J; Fannon, JEP; Kneale, L; Malek, M; McElwee, JM; Thiesse, MD; Thompson, LF; Wilson, ST; Okazawa, H; Kim, SB; Kwon, E; Seo, JW; Yu, I; Ichikawa, AK; Nakamura, KD; Tairafune, S; Nishijima, K; Nakagiri, K; Nakajima, Y; Shima, S; Taniuchi, N; Watanabe, E; Yokoyama, M; Perio, PD; Martens, K; Tsui, KM; Vagins, MR; Xia, J; Kuze, M; Izumiyama, S; Matsumoto, R; Ishitsuka, M; Ito, H; Kinoshita, T; Ommura, Y; Shigeta, N; Shinoki, M; Suganuma, T; Yamauchi, K; Martin, JF; Tanaka, HA; Towstego, T; Gaur, R; Gousy-Leblanc, V; Hartz, M; Konaka, A; Li, X; Prouse, NW; Chen, S; Xu, BD; Zhang, B; Posiadala-Zezula, M; Boyd, SB; Edwards, R; Hadley, D; Nicholson, M; Flaherty, MO; Richards, B; Ali, A; Jamieson, B; Marti, L; Minamino, A; Pintaudi, G; Sano, S; Suzuki, S; Wada, K, Search for astrophysical electron antineutrinos in Super-Kamiokande with 0.01wt% gadolinium-loaded water (May, Preprint, 2023) .
  4. Shinoki, M; Abe, K; Hayato, Y; Hiraide, K; Hosokawa, K; Ieki, K; Ikeda, M; Kameda, J; Kanemura, Y; Kaneshima, R; Kashiwagi, Y; Kataoka, Y; Miki, S; Mine, S; Miura, M; Moriyama, S; Nakano, Y; Nakahata, M; Nakayama, S; Noguchi, Y; Okamoto, K; Sato, K; Sekiya, H; Shiba, H; Shimizu, K; Shiozawa, M; Sonoda, Y; Suzuki, Y; Takeda, A; Takemoto, Y; Takenaka, A; Tanaka, H; Watanabe, S; Yano, T; Han, S; Kajita, T; Okumura, K; Tashiro, T; Tomiya, T; Wang, X; Yoshida, S; Megias, GD; Fernandez, P; Labarga, L; Ospina, N; Zaldivar, B; Pointon, BW; Kearns, E; Raaf, JL; Wan, L; Wester, T; Bian, J; Griskevich, NJ; Kropp, WR; Locke, S; Smy, MB; Sobel, HW; Takhistov, V; Yankelevich, A; Hill, J; Lee, SH; Moon, DH; Park, RG; Bodur, B; Scholberg, K; Walter, CW; Beauchêne, A; Bernard, L; Coffani, A; Drapier, O; El Hedri, S; Giampaolo, A; Mueller, TA; Santos, AD; Paganini, P; Quilain, B; Ishizuka, T; Nakamura, T; Jang, JS; Learned, JG; Choi, K; Cao, S; Anthony, LHV; Martin, D; Scott, M; Sztuc, AA; Uchida, Y; Berardi, V; Catanesi, MG; Radicioni, E; Calabria, NF; Langella, A; Machado, LN; De Rosa, G; Collazuol, G; Iacob, F; Lamoureux, M; Mattiazzi, M; Ludovici, L; Gonin, M, Measurement of the cosmogenic neutron yield in Super-Kamiokande with gadolinium loaded water, Physical Review D, vol. 107 no. 9 (May, 2023) [doi]  [abs].
  5. Longley, EP; Chang, C; Walter, CW; Zuntz, J; Ishak, M; Mandelbaum, R; Miyatake, H; Nicola, A; Pedersen, EM; Pereira, MES; Prat, J; Sánchez, J; Secco, LF; Tröster, T; Troxel, M; Wright, AH, A unified catalogue-level reanalysis of stage-III cosmic shear surveys, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 520 no. 4 (April, 2023), pp. 5016-5041, Oxford University Press (OUP) [doi]  [abs].

Highlight:
I am a professor in the physics department studying particle physics and cosmology. I try to understand both the nature of the ghostly particles called neutrinos in giant detectors deep underground, and why the expansion of the universe is accelerating using telescopes on top of mountains.   My background and training is originally in particle physics and I was part of the team that showed the sub-atomic particles called neutrinos have mass.  The leader of our team, T. Kajita was co-awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery which cited the work of our collaboration.   I also began the effort in observational cosmology at Duke, joining the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a giant telescope under construction in Chile designed to make a 10 year, three dimensional survey of the entire visible sky. Using the Rubin Observatory, we will focus on examining billions of galaxies, along with supernovae and other astronomical probes to try to determine the nature of the mysterious “Dark Energy” which is unaccountably causing the universe to pushed apart at a faster and faster rate.

Postdocs Mentored

  • Erin O'Sullivan (2014/11-present)  
  • Alex Himmel (2011 - present)  
  • Tarek Akiri (2011 - 2013)  
  • Jennifer Prendki (2010 - 2011)  
  • Roger Wendel (May, 2008 - present)  
  • Maximilien Fechner (2006 - 2008)  
  • Naho Tanimoto (2005 - 2008)