Christopher Walter

Walter

Professor of Physics

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.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Professor of Physics

Contact Information

  • Office Location: 271 Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
  • Office Phone: +1 919 660 2535
  • Email Address: chris.walter@duke.edu
  • Websites:

Education

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

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

  • Guggenheim Fellowship. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2023
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society. APS. 2017
  • 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Breakthrough Prize. 2015
  • NSF Career Award. National Science Foundation. 2009

Courses Taught

  • PHYSICS 89S: First-Year Seminar

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Abolfathi, B; Alonso, D; Armstrong, R; Aubourg, É; Awan, H; Babuji, YN; Bauer, FE; Bean, R; Beckett, G; Biswas, R; Bogart, JR; Boutigny, D; Chard, K; Chiang, J; Claver, CF; Cohen-Tanugi, J; Combet, C; Connolly, AJ; Daniel, SF; Digel, SW; Drlica-Wagner, A; Dubois, R; Gangler, E; Gawiser, E; Glanzman, T; Gris, P; Habib, S; Hearin, AP; Heitmann, K; Hernandez, F; Hložek, R; Hollowed, J; Ishak, M; Ivezić, Ž; Jarvis, M; Jha, SW; Kahn, SM; Kalmbach, JB; Kelly, HM; Kovacs, E; Korytov, D; Krughoff, KS; Lage, CS; Lanusse, F; Larsen, P; Le Guillou, L; Li, N; Longley, EP; Lupton, RH; Mandelbaum, R; Mao, YY; Marshall, P; Meyers, JE; Moniez, M; Morrison, CB; Nomerotski, A; O'Connor, P; Park, HY; Park, JW; Peloton, J; Perrefort, D; Perry, J; Plaszczynski, S; Pope, A; Rasmussen, A; Reil, K; Roodman, AJ; Rykoff, ES; Sánchez, FJ; Schmidt, SJ; Scolnic, D; Stubbs, CW; Tyson, JA; Uram, TD; Villarreal, A; Walter, CW; Wiesner, MP; Wood-Vasey, WM; Zuntz, J, The LSST DESC DC2 simulated sky survey, Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, vol 253 no. 1 (2021) [10.3847/1538-4365/abd62c] [abs].
  • Sanchez, J; Walter, CW; Awan, H; Chiang, J; Daniel, SF; Gawiser, E; Glanzman, T; Kirkby, D; Mandelbaum, R; Slosar, A; Wood-Vasey, WM; Alsayyad, Y; Burke, CJ; Digel, SW; Jarvis, M; Johnson, T; Kelly, H; Krughoff, S; Lupton, RH; Marshall, PJ; Peterson, JR; Price, PA; Sembroski, G; Van Klaveren, B; Wiesner, MP; Xin, B, The LSST DESC data challenge 1: Generation and analysis of synthetic images for next-generation surveys, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol 497 no. 1 (2020), pp. 210-228 [10.1093/mnras/staa1957] [abs].
  • Tanaka, M; Abe, K; Bronner, C; Hayato, Y; Ikeda, M; Imaizumi, S; Ito, H; Kameda, J; Kataoka, Y; Kato, Y; Kishimoto, Y; Marti, L; Miura, M; Moriyama, S; Mochizuki, T; Nakahata, M; Nakajima, Y; Nakayama, S; Okada, T; Okamoto, K; Orii, A; Pronost, G; Sekiya, H; Shiozawa, M; Sonoda, Y; Takeda, A; Takenaka, A; Tanaka, H; Yano, T; Akutsu, R; Kajita, T; Okumura, K; Wang, R; Xia, J; Bravo-Berguno, D; Labarga, L; Fernandez, P; Blaszczyk, FDM; Kearns, E; Raaf, JL; Stone, JL; Wan, L; Wester, T; Bian, J; Griskevich, NJ; Kropp, WR; Locke, S; Mine, S; Smy, MB; Sobel, HW; Takhistov, V; Weatherly, P; Hill, J; Kim, JY; Lim, IT; Park, RG; Bodur, B; Scholberg, K; Walter, CW; Coffani, A; Drapier, O; El Hedri, S; Gonin, M; Mueller, TA; Paganini, P; Ishizuka, T; Nakamura, T; Jang, JS; Learned, JG; Matsuno, S; Litchfield, RP; Sztuc, AA; Uchida, Y; Berardi, V; Catanesi, MG; Radicioni, E; Calabria, NF; De Rosa, G; Collazuol, G; Iacob, F; Ludovici, L; Nishimura, Y; Cao, S; Friend, M; Hasegawa, T; Ishida, T; Kobayashi, T; Nakadaira, T; Nakamura, K; Oyama, Y; Sakashita, K; Sekiguchi, T; Tsukamoto, T; Hasegawa, M; Isobe, Y; Miyabe, H; Nakano, Y; Shiozawa, T; Sugimoto, T; Suzuki, AT; Takeuchi, Y; Ali, A; Ashida, Y; Hirota, S; Jiang, M; Kikawa, T; Mori, M; Nakamura, K; Nakaya, T; Wendell, RA; Anthony, LH; McCauley, N; Mehta, P; Pritchard, A; Tsui, KM; Fukuda, Y; Itow, Y; Niwa, T; Taani, M; Tsukada, M; Mijakowski, P; Frankiewicz, K; Jung, CK; Vilela, C; Wilking, MJ; Yanagisawa, C; Fukuda, D; Harada, M; Hagiwara, K; Horai, T; Ishino, H; Ito, S; Koshio, Y; Sakuda, M; Takahira, Y; Xu, C; Kuno, Y; Barrow, D; Cook, L; Simpson, C; Wark, D; Nova, F; Boschi, T; Di Lodovico, F; Sedgwick, SM; Zsoldos, S; Kim, SB; Yang, JY; Thiesse, M; Thompson, L; Okazawa, H; Choi, Y; Nishijima, K; Koshiba, M; Yokoyama, M; Goldsack, A; Martens, K; Quilain, B; Suzuki, Y; Vagins, MR; Kuze, M; Yoshida, T; Ishitsuka, M; Matsumoto, R; Ohta, K; Martin, JF; Nantais, CM; Tanaka, HA; Towstego, T; Hartz, M; Konaka, A; de Perio, P; Prouse, NW; Chen, S; Xu, BD; Richards, B; Jamieson, B; Walker, J; Minamino, A; Pintaudi, G, Search for proton decay into three charged leptons in 0.37 megaton-years exposure of the Super-Kamiokande, PHYSICAL REVIEW D, vol 101 no. 5 (2020) [10.1103/PhysRevD.101.052011] [abs].