Lodewijk Nauta, Phd at Nikhef, will defend his thesis Wednesday 8 June 2022 at 11.00 at the University of Amsterdam.
“Quantum Effects on a Planetary Scale: The First Neutrino Oscillation Measurement with KM3NeT/ORCA”
KM3NeT/ORCA is a neutrino detector that is currently under construction in the Mediterranean Sea at 2.5km depth. This detector is designed to measure the fundamental particles called neutrinos, which are extremely hard to measure due to their low interaction probability with other matter. In this thesis the sensitivity of the detector is studied and optimised using simulated data, a time calibration method is applied and studied to check that the timing of the detector is around 1 ns precision, and finally, the first neutrino oscillation measurement is performed with this novel machine. Neutrino oscillations are a property of neutrinos that allows the particle to change from an initial flavour state to a different flavour state while it travels along a path. In the work performed here, the oscillating behaviour has been observed. The resulting parameter values that describe these oscillations in the physical models match earlier found values of other experiments very well. Having this first successful detection of neutrino flavour oscillations paves the way towards more precise measurements of neutrino properties in the future. The main one property is called the Neutrino Mass Ordering (NMO). The NMO tells us which of the neutrino mass eigenstates is the heaviest, which is currently unknown. Measuring the NMO is the ultimate goal of the ORCA detector.
“Quantum Effects on a Planetary Scale: The First Neutrino Oscillation Measurement with KM3NeT/ORCA” (pdf)
The PhD defense will take place on Wednesday 8 June, at 11.00 in the Aula der Universiteit, Singel 411, 1012 WN Amsterdam.
More information at the UvA website.
Supervisor: prof. dr. ir. P.J. de Jong
Co-supervisors: dr. D.F.E. Samtleben en dr. D.J. van Eijk
contact: Lodewijk Nauta