After the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics awarded for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, some questions on the properties of neutrinos remain unanswered: which neutrino is the heaviest? Is there CP violation in the leptonic sector? What is the exact value of the oscillation parameters?
These questions will be addressed by the DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, www.dunescience.org) project, envisaging the construction of a very large detector, based on the technology of the liquid-Argon TPC, to measure the oscillations of neutrinos from a beam produced by the Fermilab accelerators, at a distance of 1300 km. The experiment will also perform precision measurements on atmospheric neutrinos and address fundamental questions of particle physics, such as the stability of the proton. An international collaboration is currently working on the finalization of the project and on detailed studies of its physics potential.
A prototype of one of the DUNE detectors is being constructed at CERN and will be tested with charged particle beams to assess the experimental capabilities. It is the WA105 project.
The APC Laboratory team has an important role on different aspects of the physics studies in DUNE and participates to the definition of the design of the WA105 detector.
The thesis we propose will focus on simulation studies to assess the detector performance and on the development of analysis techniques for precise measurement of neutrino oscillations. An important part of the activity will be devoted to the finalization of the WA105 prototype, its deployment, the data taking campaign and the data analysis. The candidate will have a leading role in the development of automated algorithms for event reconstruction and particle identification in liquid Argon detectors and in the assessment of the physics capabilities of this detector in terms of energy resolution and particle identification. Measurements of charged particle interactions on Argon nuclei will also be performed.
Contacts: Thomas Patzak (patzak
apc.univ-paris-diderot.fr) and Alessandra Tonazzo (tonazzoin2p3.fr)