The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a long baseline neutrino experiment which aims to:
- discover CP Violation in the leptonic sector
- determine the neutrino Mass Ordering
- precisely measure neutrino oscillation parameters
- test the 3-flavour paradigm
This ambitious program also includes the search for Nucleon Decay and the astrophysical observations of Galactic Supernovae.
To do so, neutrinos produced by a high power wide-band neutrino beam produced at Fermilab, will be detected at a baseline of 1300 km, by 4 giant liquid argon detector modules deep underground (SURF laboratory, South Dakota). Each module will have a fiducial mass of 10 kilotonnes.
Two detector technologies are currently being tested to demonstrate their suitability for DUNE Far Detectors. Both technologies are being prototyped at CERN on a large scale (with fiducial masses of 300 tonnes).
The French groups are strongly contributing to the development of a Dual Phase liquid argon TPC (protoDUNE Dual-Phase). It is currently under-construction, and is due to start operation mid-2019. The other technology, Single-Phase, began operation in 2018 and took data with a charged particle test beam.
The proposed thesis will be heavily focused on the analysis of data from this detector, to characterise its performance and via simulation predict the performance of the full-size Far Detector. Comparison to Single-Phase will also be studied.
DUNE analysis relies heavily on the latest machine learning techniques for event reconstruction and particle identification. The candidate will become familar with the use of these modern tools, in particular their tuning for particular analysis tasks.
With the now realistic simulation, the sensitivity of the Far Detector to key physics parameters such as the CP violating phase (delta_CP) will be determined. The systematic uncertainties specific to the Dual-Phase will also be studied. Other physics analyses are also possible, which include amongst others, the capability to detect supernova neutrinos.
As well as simulation, the APC group is involved in the development of part of the electronics for the Dual-Phase photodetectors (Light Read Out). A contribution towards the testing and characterisation of this electronics is also possible.
The candidate will participate to data taking campaigns with the Dual Phase prototype detector at CERN and to collaboration meetings in the US and in Europe.