The JUNO Milano group is active in several branches of the analysis. Regarding possible thesis opportunities, for both bachelor and master students, we propose research topics which include solar neutrinos, neutrino properties as the neutrino mass ordering, and physics beyond the standard model of particle physics.
Solar Neutrino
Solar neutrinos, emitted in fusion processes powering our star, bring us information about the energy-production mechanism in the Sun and about the chemical composition of the solar core. In spite of their copious flux at Earth โ about 6.5 billions for each cm2ย in a second โ detecting solar neutrinos is experimentally challenging.
JUNO has a unique potential to perform real-time measurements of solar neutrinos, improving our understanding of the internal structure of the Sun.ย
The Milano group is leading the early JUNO analysis devoted to the solar neutrino fluxes measurements. At present, the main topics available for bachelor and master thesis are:
Background determination and reduction: both radioactive backgrounds and cosmogenic backgrounds are enemies of solar neutrino measurements. The radioactive backgrounds are due to decays of unstable isotopes in the liquid scintillator; the cosmogenic backgrounds are created by the spallation of cosmic muons on carbon atoms of the liquid scintillator, and they can be tagged with high efficiency and high sample purity based on the time and space proximity with the parent muon. This topic deals with the tagging of the backgrounds, to optimize the selection cuts and to maximize the signal/background ratio.
Spectral analysis: the separation of the neutrino signal by the radioactivity and cosmogenic backgrounds is carried out with a frequentist multivariate analysis, mainly relying on the spectral fit of the reconstructed events.
Possible new approaches based on machine learning techniques are becoming increasingly relevant and should be investigated.
Contacts: Davide Basilico, Barbara Caccianiga, Luca Pelicci, Alessandra Re
Reactor Anti-Neutrino
The Milano group is heavily involved in the reactor antineutrino analysis, which is devoted to enter the precision era of the neutrino oscillations measurements and, in a longer timescale, to the determination of the Neutrino Mass Ordering.
At present, the main topics available for bachelor and master thesis are:
- Anti-neutrino events selection
- Detector response determination & calibration analysis
- Tuning of the Monte Carlo simulations
Anti-neutrino events selection: a dataset as background-free as possible is mandatory for a precision spectroscopy of reactor antineutrinos. Unfortunately, a variety of backgrounds mimicking the anti-๐ interaction with the liquid scintillator are present in JUNO. This topic deals with the optimization of the selection cuts, to maximize the signal over background ratio, and to evaluate the JUNO sensitivity to the oscillation parameters.
Detector response determination & calibration analysis:the calibrations of the detector are a crucial and challenging stage for the success of the JUNO rich physics programme. The calibration strategy is based on the periodical deployment of radioactive sources within the liquid scintillator. This topic aims to analyze the calibration data already acquired by JUNO to extract unique information about the detector response; this is strictly connected to the monitoring of the detector response in time and of its non-uniformity throughout the scintillator volume.
Contacts: Davide Basilico, Barbara Caccianiga, Luca Pelicci, Alessandra Re
Physics Beyond the Standard Model
NSI: Non Standard Interactions:
Some theories of physics beyond the Standard Model postulate the existence of neutrino Non-Standard Interactions (NSI) which can have significant impact on neutrino sector. These extensions of the standard model can modify how neutrino interacts with matter and impact the neutrino oscillation phenomenon. The solar sector can be used to probe for this new physics beyond the SM, which can affect the neutrino charged leptons interactions, to which the JUNO experiment is particularly sensitive.
The Milano group is involved in developing an analysis strategy to detect such effects, studying the induced modifications in the electron recoil spectrum observed as a result of neutrino interactions with matter.