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NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
Electroweak probes of the nucleus and the era of precision neutrino physics
Date: Tuesday, October 1st
Time: 3:00 pm
Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
Speaker: Dan Ruterbories, University of Rochester / MINERvA
Abstract: Neutrino oscillation experiments such as NOvA and T2K search for the disappearance and appearance of muon and electron flavor neutrinos in a predominately muon-type beam. These experiments are currently measuring the oscillation parameters to greater precision but will not be able to measure the CP phase with enough significance to pin down CP violation in the lepton sector. The next generation of experiments, DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande, will push the field into its precision era, requiring precise predictions of the flux and neutrino interactions used to measure CP violation.

The MINERvA experiment is a dedicated neutrino interaction experiment set in the NuMI beamline at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The purpose of the experiment is to measure neutrino interactions off a variety of nuclear targets to probe nuclear effects and inform modeling of neutrino interactions. The experiment measures interactions over a wide range of Q2 and W including interactions in the quasi-elastic, resonant, and shallow to deep inelastic scattering regions. The experiment has run with two beam energies peaked at ~3 and 6 GeV in both neutrino and anti-neutrino enhanced modes.

In this seminar, I will describe the current state of neutrino oscillation physics and how MINERvA data will be used in future experiments. I will specifically describe the extensive tuning exercise MINERvA has done to describe interactions in the quasi-elastic into the resonant pion regions of kinematic phase space. I will also discuss the lessons learned and a description of the next generation measurements to prepare for the DUNE experiment.
Host: Tianlu Yuan
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