Project description
Improving DUNE's sensitivity to CP-violation
Why the universe we observe today is made entirely of matter is one of the biggest questions of modern physics. If the Big Bang created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, everything should have been annihilated – what tipped that balance is still unknown. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a leading-edge, international experiment for neutrino science that could provide insight into CP-violation, namely why we live in a matter-dominated universe. The EU-funded ARNU project will employ new analysis techniques to reduce the systematic errors in DUNE's CP-violation measurements caused by uncertainties in the understanding of neutrino–nucleus interactions. These should help better distinguish between different nuclear models, ultimately improving DUNE's sensitivity to CP-violation.
Objective
The question of why matter is able to exist in abundance in our Universe is one of the most exciting open questions in physics today. One possible source of a matter-antimatter asymmetry is an as yet undiscovered difference between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations (CP-violation). DUNE is a next generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment that aims to discover CP-violation in neutrino oscillations for the first time. An intense accelerator (anti)neutrino beam from Fermilab will be directed at far detectors 1300 km away. In order to observe this difference, the experiment must contend with the fact that our planet and detectors are made of matter and not antimatter. Any differences between the way neutrinos and antineutrinos interact with atomic matter must therefore be well understood in order to disentangle these differences from CP-violation in the neutrino oscillations themselves.
In this action I will work to reduce the systematic errors on DUNE's CP-violation measurement caused by uncertainties in our understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions. The work will be centered around DUNE's currently operating prototype detectors. This work is essential to conduct now since DUNE will use argon as its neutrino interaction target nucleus, resulting in more complex nuclear effects than experienced by the current generation of long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, which use lighter nuclei. In particular I will simulate the effects of different nuclear models on the interaction probabilities for neutrinos and antineutrinos and apply new analysis techniques to better distinguish between different nuclear models, ultimately improving DUNE's sensitivity to CP-violation in neutrino oscillations.
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
SW7 2AZ LONDON
United Kingdom