Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in SNO+

在 SNO 中寻找无中微子双贝塔衰变

• 批准号: 2881003
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2881003
• 关键词: Search; Neutrinoless; Double; Beta; Decay

Some of the most exciting physics to emerge over the last decade has been in the field of neutrino physics. One of the forefront experiments here has been the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), based in the SNOLAB underground scientific laboratory in Sudbury, Ontario (Canada), which was a recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics. The SNO group at Oxford have played a leading role in solving the "Solar Neutrino Problem" and clearly demonstrating, for the first time, that neutrinos exists as mixed states which allow them to apparently "oscillate" from one type to another. On the heels of this tremendously successful project, a follow-on experiment, SNO+, is being pursued with a remarkably diverse and interesting range of physics objectives. The main objective of this project is to sensitively search for a very rare process called "neutrinoless double beta decay." An observation of this would both permit a determination of the absolute neutrino masses and would establish that neutrinos act as their own antiparticles, which could have significant consequences for our understanding of the matter/antimatter asymmetry in the universe. This area of study is considered to be of extremely high importance in particle physics and the Oxford group has played a fundamental role in establishing the technique that will be used for this search. In addition, other physics goals include studies of low energy solar neutrinos, oscillations of reactor antineutrinos, searches for non-standard modes of nucleon decay, study of geo-neutrinos generated from within the earth, and to act as an important detector for neutrinos from galactic supernovae. The incoming student will work closely with the Oxford SNO+ group, which currently consists of 3 academics, 3 postdoctoral researcher and 5 other PhD students and is part of a larger UK effort, which includes 4 additional institutions: University of Sussex, University of Liverpool, KCL and University of Lancaster. The UK SNO+ collaborators comprise ~30% of the collaboration and fill many key positions within the project to which the student will also contribute. The head of the Oxford group, Steve Biller, is the UK spokesperson and leads the development effort on tellurium loading techniques in scintillator for neutrinoless double beta decay, where Oxford has made significant contributions and the thesis project will involve an extension of this work. The UK groups jointly have responsibility for delivering one of the major calibration systems for the experiment, the Oxford portion of which focuses on in situ measurements of optical scattering within the detector, and the student's work will also involve analysis related to this system. The main physics effort for the thesis will focus on neutrinoless double beta decay results and developments towards future phases.The detector is currently operating as a liquid scintillation detector and producing a variety of physics results. Isotope for neutrinoless double beta decay will be introduced in 2025. The incoming PhD student will participate in development, simulation, calibration, operation, analysis and the production of the neutrinoless double beta decay results that will follow.

在过去的十年中，一些最令人兴奋的物理学出现在中微子物理学领域。这里的最前沿实验之一是位于安大略省萨德伯里的Snolab地下科学实验室（加拿大）（加拿大）的Snolab地下科学实验室，该实验是加拿大（加拿大），该实验室获得了2015年诺贝尔物理学奖。牛津的SNO组在解决“太阳中微子问题”方面发挥了领导作用，并清楚地证明了中微子是混合状态，使它们显然可以从一种类型中“振荡”到另一种类型。在这个非常成功的项目之后，正在以非常多样化和有趣的物理目标范围进行后续实验SNO+。该项目的主要目的是敏感地搜索一个非常罕见的过程，称为“中微子双β衰减”。对此的观察既可以允许确定绝对中微子的质量，又可以确定中微子是其自身的反颗粒，这可能会对我们对宇宙中物质/反物质不对称的理解产生重大影响。该研究领域在粒子物理学中被认为非常重要，牛津集团在建立将用于此搜索的技术方面发挥了基本作用。此外，其他物理目标包括研究低能太阳中微子的研究，反应堆抗肿瘤的振荡，搜索核子衰变的非标准模式，研究从地球内部产生的地理 - 中神经的研究，并充当了来自银河系超级novae的中间缺诺的重要检测器。即将到来的学生将与牛津SNO+集团紧密合作，该小组目前由3名学者，3名博士后研究员和其他5位博士生组成，并且是英国更大的努力的一部分，其中包括4个其他机构：苏塞克斯大学，利物浦大学，利物浦大学，KCL，KCL和兰开斯特大学。英国SNO+合作者占合作的约30％，并填补了学生也将贡献的项目中的许多关键职位。牛津集团的负责人史蒂夫·比勒（Steve Biller）是英国发言人，并领导着在中微子双β衰败的闪烁剂中的柜员加载技术上的开发工作，牛津大学做出了重大贡献，论文项目将涉及这项工作的扩展。英国集团共同负责提供实验的主要校准系统之一，牛津部分的重点是对检测器内光散射的原位测量，学生的工作还将涉及与该系统相关的分析。论文的主要物理工作将集中于中微子双重β衰变结果和对未来阶段的发展。该检测器目前正在作为液体闪烁探测器运行，并产生各种物理学结果。中微子双β衰减的同位素将于2025年引入。即将到来的博士生将参与发展，模拟，校准，操作，分析和中微子双β衰减结果的开发，仿真，校准，操作，分析，并将参与下来的发展。