Neutrino Interactions
The neutrino group of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville was involved from 05/01/2013 to 04/30/2015 in the neutrino physics research funded by DOE-HEP grant DE-SC0009861. Contributions were made to the Double Chooz nuclear reactor experiment in France where second detector was commissioned during this period and final series of measurements has been started. Although Double Chooz was smaller experimental effort than competitive Daya Bay and RENO experiments, its several advantages make it valuable for understanding of systematic errors in measurements of neutrino oscillations. Double Chooz was the first experiment among competing three that produced initial result for neutrino angle θ13 measurement, giving other experiments the chance to improve measured value statistically. Graduate student Ben Rybolt defended his PhD thesis on the results of Double Chooz experiment in 2015. UT group has fulfilled all the construction and analysis commitments to Double Chooz experiment, and has withdrawn from the collaboration by the end of the mentioned period to start another experiment. Larger effort of UT neutrino group during this period was devoted to the participation in another DOE-HEP project - NOvA experiment. The 14,000-ton "FAR" neutrino detector was commissioned in northern Minnesota in 2014 together with 300-ton "NEAR" detector located at Fermilab. Following that, the physics measurement program has started when Fermilab accelerator complex produced the high-intensity neutrino beam propagating through Earth to detector in MInnessota. UT group contributed to NOvA detector construction and developments in several aspects. Our Research Associate Athanasios Hatzikoutelis was managing (Level 3 manager) the construction of the Detector Control System. This work was successfully accomplished in time with the commissioning of the detectors. Group was involved in the development of the on-line software and study of the signatures of the cosmic ray backgrounds. Flumerfelt and another graduate student Philip Mason were also studying the non-linearity properties of the NOvA liquid scintillator - information that will be essential at the final stages of NOvA data analysis. Philip Mason also studied the response of the FAR NOvA detector in correlation with solar flares. Flumerfelt and Mason successfully defended their PhD in 2015. Also, undergraduate student Cameron Blake Erickson has defended his undergraduate thesis on the NOvA liquid scintillator studies with Compton gamma spectrometer at UT.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- Contributing Organization:
- Doule Chooz Collaboration in France; NOvA Collaboration at Fermilab
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0009861
- OSTI ID:
- 1329518
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-KNOXVILLE-09861; 8659746777; TRN: US1700375
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: During the reported period 11 papers were published with Double Chooz Collaboration and two with NOvA Collaboration on the first NOvA neutrino oscillation results.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NEUTRINOS
FERMILAB ACCELERATOR
CONTROL SYSTEMS
NEUTRINO BEAMS
COSMIC RADIATION
BACKGROUND RADIATION
DATA ANALYSIS
GAMMA SPECTROMETERS
LIQUID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NEUTRINO DETECTORS
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
SOLAR FLARES
MINNESOTA
TENNESSEE
INTERACTIONS
COMPUTER CODES
CORRELATIONS
DATA COVARIANCES
CHOOZ-B1 REACTOR
CHOOZ-B2 REACTOR
theta13 angle
low systematic errors
neutrino flavor oscillations
appearance
disappearance