Physics Department Colloquia |
Events During the Week of February 6th through February 13th, 2022
Monday, February 7th, 2022
- No events scheduled
Tuesday, February 8th, 2022
- No events scheduled
Wednesday, February 9th, 2022
- No events scheduled
Thursday, February 10th, 2022
- No events scheduled
Friday, February 11th, 2022
- Search for an Excess of Electron Neutrino Interactions in MicroBooNE Using Multiple Final State Topologies
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 2103 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Bryce Littlejohn, IIT
- Abstract: I will present a measurement of electron neutrino interactions from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber performed to address the nature of the excess of low energy interactions observed by the MiniBooNE collaboration. Observation of an excess of electron neutrino detections in MicroBooNE would represent clear evidence of new physics in the neutrino sector, such as the existence of new neutrino mass states beyond those associated with the three Standard Model neutrinos. Three independent electron neutrino searches were performed by MicroBooNE across multiple single electron final states, including an exclusive search for two-body scattering events with a single proton, a semi-inclusive search for pion-less events, and a fully inclusive search for events containing all hadronic final states. With differing signal topologies, statistics, backgrounds, reconstruction algorithms, and analysis approaches, the results are found to be consistent with the nominal electron neutrino rate expectations from the Booster Neutrino Beam and no excess of electron neutrino events is observed. I will summarize important details of MicroBooNE's new centerpiece result, while also providing some broader context on its impact on searches for physics beyond the Standard Model in the neutrino sector.
- Host: Brian Rebel