CAREER: A Keystone for Precision Neutrino Physics: Multi-Target Neutrino-Nucleus Cross Section Measurements with the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino Program

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。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。寻找这些和其他关于宇宙的公开问题的答案的主要领域之一是专注于中微子的性质的研究，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。我们现在知道，有三种中微子可以通过它们在发生相互作用时经历的不同相互作用来区分。我们也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。对这些变化的详细测量，以及目前的其他中微子实验，形成了探索标准模型以外的新物理的最有前途的方法之一。这样的测量是这个奖项的核心，它将研究中微子与原子核的相互作用，以便深入了解中微子如何从一种类型振荡到另一种类型。这项工作将对即将在美国费米国家加速器实验室(FNAL)进行的中微子实验沙丘至关重要，该实验室是高能物理中最优先的实验之一。罗格斯大学的这个研究小组还将利用他们的数据分析工作来促进新泽西州非裔美国高中生对物理的参与，从而扩大物理学的多样性。目前，人们对液态Ar时间投影室(LArTPC)中的实验粒子物理有很大的兴趣，部分原因是FNAL的新沙丘计划以及一般的中微子物理。沙丘感兴趣的另一项技术是水基液体闪烁体探测器。该奖项将开发这两项技术，并研究中微子与液体Ar和液体闪烁体的相互作用。这些数据将使用FNAL的助推器中微子束以及Annie和SBND实验的探测器获得。使用相同的高强度中微子束同时测量中微子与水和Ar目标的相互作用，将准确地将这两个原子核联系起来，实现对模型的严格限制，加深我们对液态Ar探测器中中子的关键能量损失的理解，并使科学家能够定量地重新调整模型。这些进展将使改进的交叉实验比较成为可能，从而增强我们的全球图景，并广泛扩展基于液态Ar的探测器的物理能力。特别是，拟议的工作代表了一个独特的机会之窗，使未来能够对沙丘和超卡米奥坎德数据进行联合分析。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. 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. One of the primary areas to search for answers to these and other open questions about the universe 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. We now know there are three kinds of neutrinos that are distinguishable through the different interactions that they undergo whenever there is an interaction. We also know that neutrinos do have a mass and because they do, they can actually change from one type to another. Detailed measurements of these changes, along with other current neutrino experiments, form one of the most promising ways to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Such measurements lie at the heart of this award which will study neutrino-nucleus interactions in order to deeply understand how neutrinos oscillate from one type to another. This work will be crucial to the upcoming neutrino experiment, DUNE, at the U.S. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), one of the top-priority experiments in High Energy Physics. This research group at Rutgers University will also broaden diversity in physics by using their data analysis work to promote engagement in physics among African-American New Jersey high school students. There is currently a large interest in experimental particle physics in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPC) spurred in part by the new DUNE project at FNAL and in neutrino physics in general. Another technology of interest to DUNE is water-based liquid scintillator detectors. This award will develop both of these technologies and study neutrino interactions with both liquid argon and liquid scintillator. The data will be obtained using the Booster Neutrino Beam at FNAL and the detectors of the ANNIE and SBND experiments. A simultaneous measurement of neutrino interactions with water and argon targets using the same high-intensity neutrino beam will precisely relate these two nuclei, enable stringent constraints on models, deepen our understanding of crucial energy losses to neutrons in liquid argon detectors, and enable scientists to quantitatively re-tune models. These advances will enable improved cross-experiment comparisons that enhance our global picture, and broadly extend the physics capabilities of liquid argon based detectors. In particular, the proposed work represents a unique window of opportunity to enable future joint analysis of DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande data.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.