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Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Mississippi

Events

Event Information:

  • Tue
    16
    Feb
    2021

    Colloquium: Searching for Sterile Neutrinos using Antineutrino Oscillations with the NOνA Experiment

    4:00 pmZoom Meeting. See Below.

    Mike Wallbank
    Physics Department
    University of Cincinnati
    Searching for Sterile Neutrinos using Antineutrino Oscillations with the NOνA Experiment

    The NOνA experiment consists of two functionally identical liquid scintillator detectors to study neutrino oscillations over an 810 km baseline using Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beam. In additional to world- leading studies of oscillations between the three known neutrino flavors, NOνA is searching for evidence of oscillations involving an additional, sterile, neutrino. Despite observations of neutrino oscillations from the majority of experiments being consistent with a 3-neutrino mixing framework, results from LSND and MiniBooNE are incompatible with this model but could be explained by incorporating a sterile neutrino state. These intriguing results are not conclusive and are in tension with findings from other short-baseline and long-baseline experiments.
    I will describe the NOνA experiment and show the latest oscillation results, including a novel sterile search using antineutrinos, and discuss the allowed limits on the mixing angles governing the oscillations. I will also talk about future improvements to the oscillation analyses, in particular highlighting an ongoing test beam program designed to improve our understanding of the detectors and allow more precise analyses through a reduction of the uncertainties.

    Join Zoom Meeting
    https://olemiss.zoom.us/j/91928227187

    Meeting ID: 919 282 27187