Speaker: Dr. Javier Caravaca, UC Berkeley
Title:Neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions in the SNO detector
Host: Bob Svoboda
Room: PHY 285
Abstract:Production of neutrons in neutrino interactions is a complicated process not very well understood. Our knowledge of neutrino cross-sections is limited at GeV energies, resulting in large uncertainties in hadron production, which are not typically measured by neutrino beam experiments. A better understanding of neutron production is needed to develop neutron tagging techniques for nucleon decay searches, to enable neutrino and anti-neutrino separation in atmospheric neutrino experiments and to design more precise neutrino energy reconstruction algorithms for next generation detectors. The SNO experiment presents unique features for this study, namely: low cosmics rate and large neutron detection efficiency. We present a measurement of the neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions in a mixture of light and heavy water as a function of different observables, and compare a model using GENIE and GEANT4. Potentials of neutron tagging techniques and neutrino and anti-neutrino separation are also discussed in the context of atmospheric neutrino detectors
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High-Energy Seminars
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Description:
DOE visit
User:
High-Energy Seminars
Time:
10:00am - 11:00am
Location:
432
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Yes - 0 days 0 hour 10 minutes before start
Description:
Speaker: Rachel Houtz
Title: Dynamical Axions and Gravitational Waves
Host: Da Liu
Room: 432
Abstract: In this talk I discuss the gravitational wave signals of dynamical axion models. In particular, we focus on models which solve the strong CP problem and include the confinement of a QCD-like gauge group at the TeV scale. I discuss the resulting chiral symmetry breaking phase transition for models with three and four light flavors using the linear sigma model. The amplitude of the gravitational wave spectrum depends on the mass of the dynamical axion. The resulting spectra may be observed at future mid-range gravitational wave experiments such as AION/MAGIS, DECIGO, and BBO. Moreover, the TeV states can be searched for at colliders, providing a unique connection between axion physics, gravitational waves and collider searches.
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High-Energy Seminars
Time:
1:30pm - 2:30pm
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Speaker:
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Room: 432
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User:
High-Energy Seminars
Time:
1:30pm - 2:30pm
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Description:
Speaker: Sebastian Baum
Title: Paleo Detectors for Dark Matter and Supernovae
Host: Da Liu
Room: 432
Abstract: Direct detection experiments have delivered impressive limits on the interaction strength of dark matter with nuclei. A large experimental program is underway to extend the sensitivity of experiments for the direct detection of dark matter. However, such experiments are becoming increasingly difficult and costly. Recently, we proposed paleo-detectors as an alternative approach to direct detection: Instead of searching for dark matter induced nuclear recoils in a real-time laboratory experiment, we propose to search for the traces of dark matter interactions recorded in ancient minerals over geological time-scales. I will discuss this proposal, including ways to mitigate backgrounds and methods to read out tracks from ancient minerals. I will also discuss some possible applications of paleo-detectors beyond dark matter, e.g. for searching for neutrinos from core collapse supernovae.
User:
High-Energy Seminars
Time:
1:30pm - 2:30pm
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Speaker: Xing Wang
Title: Searching for Electroweak Dark Matter
Host: Da Liu
Room: 432
Abstract: Among the multitude of possibilities for particle DM, WIMPs remain a highly motivated candidate due to the predictable nature of the thermal relic abundance, and the correlated predictions for their experimental and observational probes. WIMP dark matter particles that belong to a multiplet of the standard model weak interactions are one of the best representatives, but are often challenging to probe in direct detection experiments due to loop-suppressed scattering cross-sections. Searches at hadron colliders are thus crucial for testing such a scenario. I will discuss the search channels at hadron colliders and present the projected reach at 14-TeV HL-LHC, 27-TeV HE-LHC, and 100-TeV hadron collider.
While for the pure SU(2)L multiplets discussed above the tree-level SI scattering rates are absent due to symmetry reasons, there are other scenarios in which very small tree-level rates are obtained due to cancellations of different contributions to the relevant effective couplings, dubbed as blind spot. I will discuss the impact of one-loop electroweak corrections to the spin-independent dark matter (DM) scattering cross-section, in models with such blind spot for direct detection.
