Constraining Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions and Estimating Future Neutrino-Magnetic-Moment Sensitivity With COHERENT
Date
2020
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Repository Usage Stats
views
downloads
Abstract
Neutrinos represent a rich field of physics that contains many theoretical problems that are yet to be solved and experimental results hinting at physics beyond the standard model of particle physics (BSM). An experiment studying neutrino physics and that is the source of the data used in the studies presented here is COHERENT. Its primary goals are to measure and characterize coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS). Studying CEvNS, a standard-model process, provides a direct way to constrain BSM theories. The area of Neutrino Physics that is primarily studied in this work is non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI). I use the data taken by the CsI and CENNS-10 detectors of the COHERENT experiment to improve the constraint on the vector electron-electron
NSI couplings with the up and down quarks. In addition to combining the data of those detectors, I use the Feldman-Cousins technique to improve the NSI limit, obtaining a result that is stronger than prior constraints. Multiple future improvements are discussed.
Another topic investigated here is non-zero neutrino magnetic moments, that, if measured, would point to BSM physics. I estimate the sensitivity of the future COHERENT program to the muon neutrino magnetic moment by minimizing the likelihood function of observing nuclear recoils due to that neutrino magnetic moment in the COHERENT Ge detector. The obtained predicted sensitivity is not as strong as indirect limits, but is similar to existing direct constraints.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Citation
Permalink
Citation
Sinev, Gleb (2020). Constraining Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions and Estimating Future Neutrino-Magnetic-Moment Sensitivity With COHERENT. Dissertation, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21024.
Collections
Except where otherwise noted, student scholarship that was shared on DukeSpace after 2009 is made available to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial / No derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license. All rights in student work shared on DukeSpace before 2009 remain with the author and/or their designee, whose permission may be required for reuse.