NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forums |
Organized by: Prof. Lu Lu
Neutrinos only interact via the weak force which means they are hard to detect, but provide a unique test bed for studying the weak interaction. Over the past few decades it was discovered that neutrinos have mass and change flavors. Studying the way neutrinos change flavors, termed neutrino oscillations, allows us to search for a new source of CP-violation. Measuring and understanding the ways neutrinos interact with nuclear matter is key to studiying neutrino oscillations and has proved to be more difficult than previously thought. The next-generation Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will usher in an era of high precision neutrino physics with the worlds most intense neutrino beam and massive high resolution detectors, increasing the impact of neutrino interaction measurements. I will discuss the theoretical framework we use to describe neutrino oscillations, as well as the difficulties in making neutrino interaction measurements and how they can be mitigated moving forward.