Katelin Schutz

{{Infobox scientist

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| name = Katelin Schutz

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| nationality = American

| fields = {{Hlist | particle physics | astrophysics | cosmology }}

| workplaces = MIT, McGill

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| education = Ph.D. Berkeley, B.S. MIT

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| thesis_title = Searching for the invisible: how dark forces shape our Universe

| thesis_url = https://inspirehep.net/literature/1752455

| thesis_year = 2019

| doctoral_advisor = Hitoshi Murayama

| academic_advisors = {{Hlist|Max Tegmark | Alan Guth | David Kaiser | Tracy Slatyer }}

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| awards = {{Hlist | APS Sakurai Dissertation Award | Hertz Fellow | Pappalardo Fellow |NSF Fellow | NASA Einstein Fellow }}

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| website = https://katelinschutz.com/

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Katelin Schutz is an American particle physicist known for using cosmological observations to study dark sectors, that is new particles and forces that interact weakly with the visible world. She was a NASA Einstein Fellow{{cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-awards-prize-postdoctoral-fellowships-for-2020 |quote=Katelin Schutz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dark Sectors in High-Redshift Observations |date=March 25, 2020 |title=NASA Awards Prize Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2020 |publisher=NASA }} and Pappalardo Fellow{{Cite web|title=Katelin Schutz, Pappalardo Fellow » MIT Physics|url=https://physics.mit.edu/research/pappalardo-fellowships-in-physics/katelin-schutz/|access-date=2021-04-06|website=MIT Physics|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-05-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513130014/https://physics.mit.edu/research/pappalardo-fellowships-in-physics/katelin-schutz/|url-status=dead}} in the MIT Department of Physics and is currently an assistant professor of physics at McGill University.{{Cite web |title=People Detail - Trottier Space Institute at McGill |url=https://tsi.mcgill.ca/index.php?mact=LISEcompanydirectory,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01item=katelin-schutz&cntnt01category=faculty&cntnt01returnid=66 |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=tsi.mcgill.ca}}

The American Physical Society awarded her the Sakurai Dissertation Award in theoretical particle physics in 2020, citing the highly original contributions from her PhD work.

Early life

Schutz grew up in rural western New York in the Finger Lakes region. In 2010, she graduated from Allendale Columbia School.{{cite web |url=https://allendalecolumbia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/09/Allendale-Columbia-School-Fall-2014-Beyond-the-Birches.pdf |title=Beyond the Birches - News for the Allendale Columbia School Community |date=Fall 2014 |quote=KATELIN SCHUTZ '10 After graduating this spring from MIT, Katelin has continued on to UC Berkeley for a Ph.D. in cosmological phenomenology. For her undergraduate work, she earned four prestigious awards: a Hertz Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Fellowship, an Apker Award, and a Fellowship from UC Berkeley. |access-date=2021-01-19 |archive-date=2021-01-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128002401/https://allendalecolumbia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/09/Allendale-Columbia-School-Fall-2014-Beyond-the-Birches.pdf |url-status=dead }}

Career

Schutz attended MIT, where she did research with Max Tegmark,{{Cite journal|last1=Zheng|first1=H.|last2=Tegmark|first2=M.|last3=Buza|first3=V.|last4=Dillon|first4=J. S.|last5=Gharibyan|first5=H.|last6=Hickish|first6=J.|last7=Kunz|first7=E.|last8=Liu|first8=A.|last9=Losh|first9=J.|last10=Lutomirski|first10=A.|last11=Morrison|first11=S.|date=2014-12-01|title=MITEoR: a scalable interferometer for precision 21 cm cosmology|journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=445|issue=2|pages=1084–1103|doi=10.1093/mnras/stu1773|issn=0035-8711|doi-access=free|arxiv=1405.5527}} David Kaiser,{{cite journal |title=Multifield Inflation after Planck: Isocurvature Modes from Nonminimal Couplings |first1=Katelin |last1=Schutz |first2=Evangelos I. |last2=Sfakianakis |first3=David I. |last3=Kaiser |date=2013-10-30|journal=Physical Review D |volume=89 |issue=6 |page=064044 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.89.064044 |arxiv=1310.8285 |hdl=1721.1/89005 |s2cid=54016557 }} and Tracy Slatyer.{{cite journal|title=Self-Scattering for Dark Matter with an Excited State |first1=Katelin |last1=Schutz |first2=Tracy R. |last2=Slatyer |author-link2=Tracy Slatyer |date=2014-09-09 |journal=Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics |volume=2015 |page=021 |doi=10.1088/1475-7516/2015/01/021|arxiv=1409.2867 |s2cid=119199238 }} She was awarded a Hertz Fellowship and NSF Fellowship in 2014.{{cite web|date=2015-06-10|title=NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award Recipients, 2014|url=https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf-graduate-research-fellowship-program-award-recipients-2014|access-date=2021-01-18|archive-date=2021-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128024449/https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf-graduate-research-fellowship-program-award-recipients-2014|url-status=dead}} She did her PhD with Hitoshi Murayama at UC Berkeley.{{cite web |url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?last_nm=Schutz&first_nm=Katelin&year=2020 |title=2020 J.J. and Noriko Sakurai Dissertation Award in Theoretical Particle Physics Recipient - Katelin Schutz |year=2020 |publisher=American Physical Society}} She completed her thesis in 2019, titled "Searching for the invisible: how dark forces shape our Universe."{{cite thesis |type=PhD |title=Searching for the invisible: how dark forces shape our Universe |first=Katharine |last=Schutz |publisher=UC Berkeley |date=2019-08-29 }}

Schutz joined McGill University in Montreal as an assistant professor in August 2021 as part of the Centre for High Energy Physics and in the McGill Space Institute.{{cite web |url=https://katelinschutz.com/ |access-date=2021-01-12 |title=Katelin Schutz }}

Research

Schutz studies extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics known as dark matter that might interact only weakly or indirectly with familiar matter made of quarks and leptons. For example, her research asks whether such dark matter particles might experience new forces outside of the Standard Model, and how we might detect such interactions. In particular, such particles would interact with standard matter via gravity, and such interactions may provide a "gravitational portal between dark and visible matter" that we can observe via astronomy, e.g. stars and galaxies, including nearby dwarf galaxies and the Milky Way itself, and also large-scale cosmological structures, such as the CMB, the Lyman-alpha forest, and the cosmological 21 cm line.{{cite web |date=March 5, 2020 |author=Katelin Schutz |title=Searching for the Invisible – How Dark Forces Shape Our Universe |publisher=Simons Foundation |url=https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/cca-special-seminar-katelin-schulz/ }} Schutz and colleagues have pointed out that if dark matter consists of particles that are far lighter than electrons, then particles in the Standard Model could create dark matter through feeble interactions at low temperature known as freeze-in.{{cite web |date=October 15, 2020 |author=Katelin Schutz |title=Making dark matter out of light: the cosmology of sub-MeV freeze-in |publisher=Yale University |url=https://astronomy.yale.edu/event/yale-astronomy-virtual-colloquium-katelin-schutz }}{{cite web |url=https://www.hertzfoundation.org/news/dark-matter-from-light-itself/ |title=Dark Matter from Light Itself |date=March 5, 2019 |publisher=Hertz Foundation }}{{cite journal |title=Making dark matter out of light: freeze-in from plasma effects |first1=Cora |last1=Dvorkin |author-link1=Cora Dvorkin |first2=Tongyan |last2=Lin |first3=Katelin |last3=Schutz |date=2019-02-22 |journal=Physical Review D |volume=99 |issue=11 |page=115009 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.99.115009 |arxiv=1902.08623 |bibcode=2019PhRvD..99k5009D |s2cid=119247835 }}{{cite journal |title=Cosmology of Sub-MeV Dark Matter Freeze-In |first1=Cora |last1=Dvorkin |author-link1=Cora Dvorkin|first2=Tongyan |last2=Lin |first3=Katelin |last3=Schutz |journal=Physical Review Letters |year=2021 |volume=127 |issue=11 |page=111301 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.111301 |pmid=34558939 |arxiv=2011.08186 |bibcode=2021PhRvL.127k1301D |s2cid=226976117 }} She has also studied strongly interacting massive particles as a dark matter candidate.{{cite journal |author=Yonit Hochberg |author2=Eric Kuflik |author3=Robert Mcgehee |author4=Hitoshi Murayama |author5=Katelin Schutz |title=Strongly Interacting Massive Particles through the Axion Portal |journal=Physical Review D |volume=98 |year=2018 |number=11 |page=115031 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.98.115031 |arxiv=1806.10139 |bibcode=2018PhRvD..98k5031H |s2cid=127399422 }}

Her research has also identified mechanisms for directly detecting dark matter particles through a two-excitation process in superfluid helium{{cite journal |title=Detectability of Light Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium |first1=Katelin |last1=Schutz |first2=Kathryn M. |last2=Zurek |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=2016-09-14 |volume=117 |issue=12 |page=121302 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.121302 |pmid=27689261 |arxiv=1604.08206 |bibcode=2016PhRvL.117l1302S |s2cid=36465591 |url=https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.121302 }}{{cite journal |title=Spotting Dark Matter with Supermaterials - Superconducting aluminum or superfluid helium could be used to detect superlight dark matter particles. |journal=Physics |date=2016-09-14 |volume=9 |url=https://physics.aps.org/articles/v9/s100 |publisher=American Physical Society }} as well as for detecting primordial black holes using pulsar timing.{{Cite journal|last1=Schutz|first1=Katelin|last2=Liu|first2=Adrian|date=2017-01-11|title=Pulsar timing can constrain primordial black holes in the LIGO mass window|journal=Physical Review D|volume=95|issue=2|page=023002|doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.95.023002|arxiv=1610.04234|bibcode=2017PhRvD..95b3002S|s2cid=119206621|doi-access=free}}

She and her colleagues also simulate galactic halos,{{cite journal |author=Mark Vogelsberger |author2=Jesus Zavala |author3=Katelin Schutz |author4=Tracy Slatyer |title=Evaporating the Milky Way halo and its satellites with inelastic self-interacting dark matter |doi=10.1093/mnras/stz340 |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=484 |issue=4 |date=April 2019 |pages=5437–5452 |publisher=Royal Astronomical Society |doi-access=free |arxiv=1805.03203 |bibcode=2019MNRAS.484.5437V |hdl=1721.1/127821 |s2cid=119449216 }} and have used data from Gaia to observationally constrained the existence of a dark matter disk in the Milky Way.{{cite journal |author=Katelin Schutz |author2=Tongyan Lin |author3=Benjamin R. Safdi |author4=Chih-Liang Wu |title=Constraining a Thin Dark Matter Disk with Gaia |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=121 |year=2018 |number=8 |page=081101 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.081101 |pmid=30192577 |arxiv=1711.03103 |bibcode=2018PhRvL.121h1101S |s2cid=52175218 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/deathblow-dealt-to-dark-matter-disks-20171117/ | title=Deathblow Dealt to Dark Matter Disks - New data tracking the movements of millions of Milky Way stars have effectively ruled out the presence of a "dark disk" that could have offered important clues to the mystery of dark matter. |author=Natalie Wolchover |date=2017-11-17 |publisher=Quanta Magazine }}

Awards

As a graduate student, Schutz was a NSF Fellow and Hertz Foundation Fellow.{{cite web|title=Hertz Fellow Profile: Katelin Schutz|url=https://www.hertzfoundation.org/person/katelin-schutz/|access-date=2021-01-13}} She was named a 2019 Rising Star in physics by the Stanford and MIT Departments of Physics.{{cite web |title=Rising Stars In Physics 2019 |date=April 10–11, 2019 |url=https://physicsrisingstars2019.sites.stanford.edu/agenda |publisher=Stanford University }} In 2020 she was the first woman to receive the American Physical Society Sakurai Dissertation Award in theoretical particle physics.{{Cite web|title=J. J. and Noriko Sakurai Dissertation Award in Theoretical Particle Physics|url=http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/particle.cfm|access-date=2021-04-06|website=www.aps.org|language=en}}