Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The 20th century was a thriving era for many fields in sciences, including particle physics with the establishment of the Standard Model. When the Standard Model was first proposed, neutrinos were supposed to appear as three flavours corresponding to the lepton produced when the neutrino interacts and having no mass. However late 1960s, scientists were confronted to the solar neutrino problem and their conception of neutrinos had to change. The long journey up to the discovery of neutrino oscillations in solar and atmospheric neutrinos -which enables one flavour to change into another during its course over time- imposes those particles have a mass. Consequently neutrinos have been extensively studied on the one hand to determine their properties (i.e. to put constraints on their mass, to know how they interact with matter, know if they are their own antiparticle,...) and on the other hand to study their oscillations and constraint the allowed range of parameter values. There are six parameters: two squared mass differences, three angles and at least one phase. The formalism was well established and the two mass differences allowed correspond to the mass difference observed in solar neutrino oscillations and to the mass difference observed in atmospheric neutrino oscillations. By 2000, the situation was much clearer. However, some experiments reported unexpected parameter values, challenging our comprehension of neutrino oscillations. In total three types of anomalies are reported; the LSND, the Gallium and the reactor antineutrino anomaly. We will focus here on the first one, which was an anomaly initially reported by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector experiment in 1995 and was confirmed in 2009 by the MiniBooNE experiment. These new parameter values do not fit in the actual scheme of three neutrino mixing and may imply new physics.


In this work, we will start with an introduction to neutrino oscillations in chapter 1, where we will then present the formalism of three neutrino mixing as understood nowadays. In chapter 2 we will describe the MiniBooNE experiment and review its results. Next, in chapter 3, we will derive the deviation of the observed number of events compared to the expected one to understand better the importance of the anomaly. We will also derive the oscillation parameter values with this new set of data to see how these insert into the actual scheme. We will continue with a discussion about the currently most investigated solution; the existence of additional sterile neutrinos whose further investigation experiments are presented in chapter 4.

Neutrino oscillation, MiniBooNE experiment --- Physique, chimie, mathématiques & sciences de la terre > Aérospatiale, astronomie & astrophysique

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Particle physics is a science about the symmetries of our world. The Standard Model is the fundamental theory of microworld. Particle dynamics in the Standard Model obeys strict symmetry laws with explicit experimental consequences. Priority problems of particle physics based on the Standard Model are more accurate theoretical predictions, experimental measurements and data analysis, proof of existence or non-existence of supersymmetry, top quark properties, Higgs boson, exotic quark states, and physics of neutrinos. In this collection of articles, many of these problems are discussed. We recommend this book for students, graduate students, and scientists working in the field of high energy physics.

Research & information: general --- Mathematics & science --- exotic states --- confined covariant quark model --- strong and radiative decays --- strong interaction --- high energy --- multiparticle production --- multiplicity --- transverse momentum --- forward-backward correlations --- long-range rapidity correlations --- translation invariance in rapidity --- quark-gluon strings --- string fusion --- high energy physics --- electron–positron annihilation --- forward–backward asymmetry --- left–right asymmetry --- top quark --- pair production --- charge asymmetry --- neutrino oscillations in matter --- rephasing invariant --- neutrino absorption --- quasi-Dirac --- neutrino oscillation --- Majorana neutrino mass --- neutrinoless double beta decay --- gravity --- relocalization --- topology --- boundary --- poles

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

A Search for Muon Neutrino to Electron Neutrino Oscillations in the MINOS Experiment is a tour de force that summarizes, clearly and in some depth, much of Ochoa’s vast body of work which has had a major impact on MINOS. The centerpiece of the thesis is the search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations, which would indicate a non-zero mixing angle between the first and third neutrino generations (θ13), currently the “holy grail” of neutrino physics.  The optimal extraction of the electron neutrino oscillation signal is based on the novel “library event matching” (LEM) method which Ochoa developed and implemented together with colleagues at Caltech and at Cambridge, which improves MINOS’ reach for establishing an oscillation signal over any other method. LEM will now be the basis for MINOS’ final results, and will likely keep MINOS at the forefront of this field until it completes its data taking in 2011. Ochoa and his colleagues also developed the successful plan to run MINOS with a beam tuned for antineutrinos, to make a sensitive test of CPT symmetry by comparing the inter-generational mass splitting for neutrinos and antineutrinos. Ochoa’s in-depth, creative approach to the solution of a variety of complex experimental problems is an outstanding example for graduate students and longtime practitioners of experimental physics alike. Some of the most exciting results in this field to emerge in the near future may find their foundations in this thesis, for which Ochoa was awarded the National Prize for Youth of Mexico in 2009. This Doctoral Thesis has been accepted by California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA.

Cosmic rays -- Congresses. --- Neutrinos -- Congresses. --- Neutrino interactions --- Neutrinos --- Physics --- Physical Sciences & Mathematics --- Nuclear Physics --- Atomic Physics --- Neutrinos. --- Oscillations. --- Neutret --- Physics. --- Elementary particles (Physics). --- Quantum field theory. --- Particle acceleration. --- Elementary Particles, Quantum Field Theory. --- Particle Acceleration and Detection, Beam Physics. --- Numerical and Computational Physics. --- Cycles --- Fluctuations (Physics) --- Vibration --- Leptons (Nuclear physics) --- Neutrons --- Quantum theory. --- Numerical and Computational Physics, Simulation. --- Particles (Nuclear physics) --- Acceleration (Mechanics) --- Nuclear physics --- Quantum dynamics --- Quantum mechanics --- Quantum physics --- Mechanics --- Thermodynamics --- Acceleration --- Natural philosophy --- Philosophy, Natural --- Physical sciences --- Dynamics --- Relativistic quantum field theory --- Field theory (Physics) --- Quantum theory --- Relativity (Physics) --- Elementary particles (Physics) --- High energy physics --- Nuclear particles --- Nucleons --- Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search