High Energy Neutrino Analysis at Kamland and Application to Dark Matter Search

Date

2016-05

Contributor

Advisor

Department

Instructor

Depositor

Speaker

Researcher

Consultant

Interviewer

Narrator

Transcriber

Annotator

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Volume

Number/Issue

Starting Page

Ending Page

Alternative Title

Abstract

There are currently two active detector technologies for neutrino detection, namely Cherenkov and scintillator detectors. In the past, scintillator detectors have traditionally been used much like calorimeters to analyze neutrinos at lower energies of ~MeV, whereas neutrino directionality and flavor discrimination at higher energy scales have been greatly pursued by Cherenkov detectors. In this work, we will introduce a novel analysis technique to resolve the directionality of ~GeV scale neutrinos in scintillator with data taken at the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND), the world’s largest scintillator neutrino detector located in Kamioka, Japan. Studies suggest that the directional resolution using this new method may be better than that of the Cherenkov method by ~10◦ in this energy regime. We will also explore track reconstruction and flavor discrimination techniques that were initially developed for R&D in the Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy (LENA) detector, and apply these techniques for the first time using real data. Finally we will employ the methods introduced to conduct an indirect dark matter search by looking for neutrino signals originating from dark matter annihilation in the Sun and Earth.

Description

Keywords

Citation

Extent

Format

Geographic Location

Time Period

Related To

Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Physics & Astronomy

Related To (URI)

Table of Contents

Rights

Rights Holder

Local Contexts

Collections

Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.