RUI: Experimental Neutrino Research at Minnesota Duluth

世纪的主要学术成就之一是粒子物理学标准模型（SM）的发展。该模型成功地将当时已知的所有基本粒子分类为具有相似量子特性的组的层次结构。到目前为止，这个模型的有效性被欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机上发现的希格斯玻色子所证实。然而，目前存在的标准模型留下了许多关于宇宙的问题，包括为什么希格斯质量具有它的价值以及为什么宇宙中没有反物质等基本问题。对于这些和其他关于宇宙的开放性问题，宇宙是如何形成的，为什么会是这样，寻找答案的一个主要领域是专注于中微子性质的研究，并利用我们所知道的和可以学到的关于中微子的知识作为标准模型之外的科学探针。中微子是那些基本粒子，在宇宙中几乎不与其他任何东西相互作用。它们不带电荷，曾经被认为是无质量的。像其他基本粒子一样，它们被认为有一个反物质对应物，反中微子。此外，标准模型预测，实际上有三种不同类型的中微子，它们可以通过不同的相互作用来区分，无论何时发生相互作用。但是最近的测量已经完全改变了我们对中微子的看法。我们现在知道中微子确实有质量，因为它们有质量，它们实际上可以从一种类型变成另一种类型。这项工作的智力价值在于这些变化的详细测量，沿着其他当前的中微子实验。 这些构成了探索超越标准模型（BSM）的新物理学的最有前途的方法之一，也是本研究的主题。这项研究将涉及明尼苏达大学杜卢斯分校的本科生的工作。从事NOvA和MINERvA实验的教师和学生将进一步进行中微子振荡测量，并正在努力获得第一个天体物理学结果。这项工作包括增强NOvA电子设备自我检测来自潜在银河系超新星的中微子爆发的能力，并与全球超新星检测网络共享警报。中微子相互作用测量继续与现有的和传入的数据从MINERvA实验。最后，该小组正在进行下一代实验DUNE的工作，包括在数据采集系统中的作用，近探测器的设计，以及中微子相互作用的不确定性在实验设计灵敏度中的作用。该基金会还通过参与和领导NOvA外展计划来支持更广泛的影响，该计划包括苏丹地下实验室的定期夏季图尔斯之旅和位于明尼苏达州阿什河的NOvA探测器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

One of the major intellectual achievements of the 20th century was the development of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. This model succeeded in classifying all of the elementary particles known at the time into a hierarchy of groups having similar quantum properties. The validity of this model to date was confirmed by the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. However, the Standard Model as it currently exists leaves open many questions about the universe, including such fundamental questions as to why the Higgs mass has the value it has and why there is no antimatter in the universe. A primary area to search for answers to these and other open questions about the universe, how it came to be and why it is the way it is, is to focus on a study of the properties of neutrinos and to use what we know and can learn about neutrinos as probes of science beyond the Standard Model. Neutrinos are those elementary particles that interact with practically nothing else in the universe. They have no electric charge and were once thought to be massless. Like other elementary particles, they were believed to have an antimatter counterpart, the antineutrino. Moreover, the Standard Model predicted that there were actually three different kinds of neutrinos that were distinguishable through the different interactions that they did undergo whenever there was an interaction. But recent measurements have totally changed our picture of neutrinos. We now know that neutrinos do have a mass and because they do, they can actually change from one type to another. The Intellectual Merit of this work is in the detailed measurements of these changes, along with other current neutrino experiments. These form one of the most promising ways to probe for new physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) and are the subject of this investigation. This research will involve the work of undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, an RUI. Faculty and students working on the NOvA and MINERvA experiments will further the neutrino oscillation measurements and are working toward first astrophysics results. The effort includes enhancing the ability for NOvA electronics to self-detect the neutrino burst from a potential galactic supernova and share that alert with the world-wide supernova detection network. Neutrino interaction measurements continue with existing and incoming data from the MINERvA experiment. Finally, the group is pursuing work toward the next generation experiment, DUNE, including roles in the data acquisition system, design of the near detectors, and the role of neutrino interaction uncertainties in the design sensitivity of the experiment. This grant also supports broader impacts via participation and leadership of the NOvA outreach program, which includes regular summer tours of the Soudan Underground Laboratory and the NOvA detector at the Ash River, MN site.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.