A search for the last neutrino flavour mixing angle with the T2K experiment and development of novel detector technique for safeguards application

通过 T2K 实验寻找最后的中微子味道混合角并开发用于保障应用的新型探测器技术

• 批准号: ST/I00422X/2
• 负责人: Antonin Vacheret
• 金额: $ 6.04万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FI00422X%2F2
• 关键词: search; last; neutrino; flavour; mixing

In the last ten years a combination of experiments has demonstrated one of the most striking discoveries in the neutrino sector: neutrinos have mass and they oscillate. This is the first compelling evidence for a phenomena that is not described by the standard model and which has already had great consequences for astrophysics and cosmology. It might also bring us further to the discovery of CP violation in the lepton sector in a similar way that CP violation is present in the quark sector. This will be of utmost importance as CP violation is a mechanism believed to be at the origin of matter and anti-matter asymmetry in the universe but too small in the quark sector alone to explain all of it. Accessing CP violation in the neutrino sector is only possible if oscillation of muon neutrino to electron neutrino takes place. This research has two key objectives: 1. to search for the oscillations of muon neutrino to electron neutrino using the T2K experiment in Japan; and 2. to lead the development of an anti-neutrino monitor for safeguards applications based on T2K detector techniques. T2K is a long baseline neutrino experiment, whose main goal is to look for appearance of electron neutrinos in an oscillated beam of muon neutrinos. The muon neutrino beam is created at the J-PARC facility in Tokai (north-east Japan) and detected 295 km away in the large water Cherenkov detector Super-Kamiokande in the Kamioka mine. This research focuses on measurement of neutrino interactions at the T2K near detector before the beam has had time to oscillate. These measurement will be used to characterise background interactions at Super-Kamiokande in order to maximise our chance of discovering this oscillation. Technology based used at the T2K near detector has been found to be well suited for application in nuclear reactor monitoring. Reactor cores are powerful neutrino sources and give precise information about the reactor operation. The use of high performance, practical and cost-effective neutrino detector has been identified as being well suited for future implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguard procedures. This research would lead the way in the development of a device capable of performing this task which would be the first practical application of neutrino physics.

在过去的十年里，一系列实验证明了中微子领域最引人注目的发现之一：中微子有质量，而且会振荡。这是第一个令人信服的证据，证明标准模型无法描述的现象，并且已经对天体物理学和宇宙学产生了重大影响。这也可能使我们进一步发现CP破坏在轻子扇区中以类似的方式，CP破坏存在于夸克扇区中。这将是至关重要的，因为CP破坏被认为是宇宙中物质和反物质不对称性的起源，但在夸克扇区中太小而无法解释所有这些。中微子扇区中的CP破坏只有在μ中微子到电子中微子的振荡发生时才有可能。本研究有两个主要目的：1。利用日本的T2 K实验寻找μ中微子到电子中微子的振荡; 2.领导基于T2 K探测器技术的保障应用反中微子监测器的开发。T2 K是一个长基线中微子实验，其主要目标是在振荡的μ子中微子束中寻找电子中微子的出现。μ子中微子束是在东海（日本东北部）的J-PARC设施中产生的，并在295公里外的神冈矿的大型切伦科夫水探测器Super-Kamiokande中探测到。本研究的重点是测量中微子相互作用的T2 K附近的检测器之前，光束有时间振荡。这些测量将被用来验证超级神冈的背景相互作用，以最大限度地提高我们发现这种振荡的机会。在T2 K近探测器上使用的基于技术已被发现非常适合用于核反应堆监测。反应堆堆芯是强大的中微子源，并提供有关反应堆运行的精确信息。使用高性能、实用和成本效益高的中微子探测器已被确定为非常适合于今后执行国际原子能机构（原子能机构）的保障监督程序。这项研究将引领能够执行这项任务的设备的开发，这将是中微子物理学的第一个实际应用。