When Neutrinos Collide
| Date/Time: | Wednesday, 13 Apr 2016 from 4:10 pm to 5:10 pm |
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| Location: | A401 Zaffarano Hall |
| Contact: | Chunhui Chen |
| Phone: | 515-294-5062 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Following the measurement of the last oscillation parameter, theta13, current and planned neutrino experiments are now striving to enter a phase of precision measurement. A key requirement in precision long-baseline oscillation physics will be the accurate estimation of neutrino energy from the detected final state particles. A number of complex, many-body neutrino-nucleus effects (such as so-called Meson Exchange Currents) can affect this energy reconstruction, and growing body of literature finds this contribution to have a significant effect in smearing the oscillation spectrum of future experiments. There is an exciting opportunity in a number of new and existing neutrino detectors to further study these effects. The NOvA experiment provides a chance to study hadronic energy reconstruction in a target of scintillator-loaded oil off-axis on the high-energy NuMI beamline The ANNIE experiment, now under construction, will allow for the first time the efficient detection of final state neutrons from neutrinos interacting with a water target in the 1 GeV Booster Neutrino Beam. Not only can measurements in these detectors help to better understand neutrino-nucleus interactions, but experimental techniques such as neutron tagging could have a wide variety of uses in other physics measurements such as the detection of proton decay or diffuse relic supernova neutrinos. In this talk I will discuss some of current physics issues involved with the study of neutrino nucleus interactions, and experimental efforts to understand these effects. I will focus primarily on my own work with ANNIE and NOvA.