Arts & Sciences Events
[PAST EVENT] Amy Nicole Filkins: Physics Dissertation Defense
Location
Zoom
Amy Nicole Filkins, Final Oral Examination for the Ph.D. Degree, Title: "Inclusive and Inelastic Scattering in Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions"
Zoom info available upon request. Please email Ellie at evwilk@wm.edu.
Abstract: Neutrino-nucleus cross section measurements can provide both insights into nuclear physics and important data which can be used to improve model predictions used for neutrino oscillation physics. Two measurements of neutrino-nucleus cross sections were performed using data from the MINERvA experiment, each probing different classes of neutrino interactions. Double and single differential flux integrated measurements of inclusive charged current neutrino-nucleus cross sections at a peak neutrino energy of 3.5 GeV are presented as a function of the longitudinal and transverse momentum of the muon produced in the interaction. Additionally, an analysis of charged-current deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of muon neutrinos was performed in carbon, iron, lead and hydrocarbon in a neutrino beam with a peak energy of 6 GeV. Cross sections were measured in each material, and ratios were also taken between the cross sections of each of the materials and hydrocarbon, allowing for examination of nuclear dependencies in the neutrino cross section. Absolute DIS cross sections as a function of neutrino energy and flux integrated differential cross sections as a function of the Bjorken-x scaling variable were both measured.
Bio: Amy Filkins was born in Albany, New York and attended Shenendehowa Central Schools for elementary through high school, graduating in 2012. She received her BA in physics from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 2016. Following graduation from SUNY Geneseo, Amy entered in the PhD program at William & Mary where she has been working on the MINERvA experiment. She has since studied neutrino-nucleus interactions working with Professor Jeffrey Nelson.