Minitimecube: Building The World's Smallest Neutrino Detector
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2018-08
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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The goal of this thesis is to describe the creation and testing of the world's smallest antineutrino detector, which was designed and built at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, and was deployed at the NIST research nuclear reactor facilities in Maryland during 2014{2016. First, we review relevant theoretical aspects of neutrino physics: sources of neutrinos and reactor antineutrinos in particular, and give a comparison between description of neutrino oscillations in quantum mechanics and quantum eld theory. Second, we focus on the main components of this new-generation detector, as well as the data taking, analysis, and conclusions we drew from the project. The novelty was in having a very small volume (2 liters) compared to all other neutrino detectors, with fast-timing electronics and photodetectors in a very conned space. The idea was to reconstruct the direction of particles propagating inside the scintillator using information from the rst arrival of both Cherenkov and scintillation photons. While the project did not succeed in detecting neutrinos in its rst outing, many important lessons were learned which we take to the next-generation NuLat instrument, under construction at present.
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