Browsing by Subject "neutrino"

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    Astrophysics and Physics of Neutrino Detection
    (2017-09) Li, Cheng-Hsien
    A galactic core-collapse supernova is a powerful neutrino source of which the signals can be picked up by a water Cherenkov detector on the Earth. From an astrophysical point of view, the signals reveal the dynamics of core-collapse supernova explosion and the subsequent cooling of a proto-neutron star (PNS). In this regard, we compare the neutrino emission profiles from the recent 1D hydrodynamics simulation by Mirizzi et al. (2016) with the historical SN1987A data through a statistical goodness-of-fit test. Such test reveals the tension between the data and rapid PNS cooling prescribed by the convection treatment employed in the simulation. The implications will be discussed. From a quantum-mechanical point of view, on the other hand, the supernova neutrino flux is so intensive such that a huge degree of wave-packet overlap is estimated. Such overlap may give rise to an interference effect known as the Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) effect. We derive the solution for a 3D Gaussian wave packet and, with such solution, the joint-detection probability. We demonstrate that an observable interference occurs if the joint-detection were to render the two detected neutrinos in the same phase space cell. Upon further examination, however, we conclude that such effect is difficult to observe from neutrinos in practical experimental settings.
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    Muon Neutrino Contained Disappearance in NOvA
    (2015-09) Lein, Susan
    The NOvA experiment studies neutrino oscillations in the NuMI neutrino beam from Fermilab. NOvA consists of two liquid scintillator tracking calorimeters placed 14 milliradians off-axis from the beam and 810 km apart. The NOvA experiment started taking data in 2014. This thesis establishes the neutrino energy estimation procedures used to determine the oscillation parameters $\sin^2 \theta_{23}$ and $\Delta m_{32}^2$.