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[PAST EVENT] Luis Alberto Zazueta Reyes: Physics Dissertation Defense
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Luis Alberto Zazueta Reyes, Final Oral Examination for the Ph.D. Degree, Title: "Constraining of the MINERvA Medium Energy Neutrino Flux Using Neutrino-Electron Scattering"
Meeting ID: 2120332042 Passcode: available upon request. Please email Ellie at [[evwilk]].
Abstract: Long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments rely on the flux from accelerator-based neutrino beams. As experimental neutrino physics moves to the next generation of experiments a precise characterization of the neutrino flux on a given experiment becomes crucial to the goals of the experiments; to precisely determine the neutrino oscillation parameters.
This work takes advantage of neutrino-electron scattering processes for their precisely predicted cross section. The observed number of scattering events can be used as a benchmark to constrain the neutrino flux. A measurement was made of the energy spectrum of neutrino-electron elastic scattering, using data from the antineutrino-enhanced run period of the NuMI beam line with an energy peak at 6 GeV. This new data was combined with previous measurements of neutrino-electron elastic scattering and inverse muon decay. A bayesian probability technique was applied to constrain the multi-simulation prediction of the neutrino flux. A constraint is set on the normalization and uncertainty of the NuMI neutrino flux at the MINERvA. The fractional uncertainty on the integrated neutrino flux is reduced from 7.6% to 3.3% for the muon neutrino beam and from 7.8% to 4.7% for the muon antineutrino beam. The reduced flux uncertainty will benefit minerva cross sections measurements by reducing the uncertainty on the neutrino flux. Additionally, the technique demonstrated in this work can be applied to other accelerator-based neutrino experiments as another tool to characterize the neutrino flux.
Bio: Luis Zazueta Reyes was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico on May 27, 1992. Growing up in Santa Ana, Sonora, he became interested in science and especially particle physics. In 2010 he began studying at the Universidad de Sonora culminating in a bachelor’s degree in physics in 2015. In 2016 he started the Ph.D. program at William & Mary working on experimental neutrino physics with the MINERvA collaboration under the supervision of Dr. Michael Kordosky. After graduation, he aspires to continue working toward the future of neutrino physics experiments.