RUI: Experimental Neutrino Research at Minnesota Duluth

20世纪的主要智力成就之一是粒子物理标准模型(SM)的发展。这个模型成功地将当时已知的所有基本粒子归入具有相似量子性质的群组的层次结构中。在欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机上发现的希格斯玻色子证实了这个模型到目前为止的有效性。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，为什么宇宙中没有反物质等基本问题。要寻找这些和其他关于宇宙的悬而未决的问题的答案，它是如何形成的，为什么它是这样的，一个主要领域是专注于中微子的性质研究，并将我们所知道和可以了解的中微子用作超越标准模型的科学探测器。中微子是那些与宇宙中几乎任何其他东西都不相互作用的基本粒子。它们没有电荷，曾经被认为是无质量的。与其他基本粒子一样，它们被认为有一个反物质的对应物，即反中微子。此外，标准模型预测，实际上有三种不同类型的中微子可以通过不同的相互作用来区分，无论何时发生相互作用，它们都会经历不同的相互作用。但最近的测量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，所以它们实际上可以从一种类型变成另一种类型。这项工作的学术价值在于对这些变化的详细测量，以及目前的其他中微子实验。这些形成了探索超越标准模型(BSM)的新物理的最有前途的方法之一，也是本次调查的主题。这项研究将涉及安瑞明尼苏达大学德卢斯分校本科生的工作。从事Nova和Minerva实验的教职员工和学生将进一步进行中微子振荡测量，并正在努力取得第一个天体物理学结果。这项努力包括增强新星电子公司自我探测潜在银河系超新星爆发的中微子的能力，并与全球超新星探测网络共享警报。中微子相互作用测量继续使用现有的和来自Minerva实验的数据。最后，该小组正在进行下一代实验沙丘的工作，包括在数据采集系统中的作用，近距离探测器的设计，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。这笔赠款还通过参与和领导Nova外联计划来支持更广泛的影响，该计划包括定期夏季参观苏丹地下实验室和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智力优势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.