2023-07-11 14:00 | 2023-07-11 15:30
Rasa Muller, PhD at Nikhef, will defend her thesis Tuesday 11 July 2023 at 14.00 at the University of Amsterdam.
“Getting to the point – First cosmic neutrino source search with the KM3NeT/ARCA detector”
Without realizing it, on Earth we are constantly bombarded by cosmic particles. More than 100 years after their discovery, it is still not exactly clear what sources produce these particles, and what are the precise acceleration mechanisms that give these particles their energy. At the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, at ~3.5 km depth, a detector called KM3NeT is being built to help answer, this question (among others).
KM3NeT is short for cubic kilometer (km³) neutrino telescope. It will be a network of 230 lines of light-sensitive sensors to measure neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles that – because they have no charge, barely any mass, and can interact with matter only via the weak nuclear force – can fly through anything. An added benefit of this, is that neutrinos point directly back to the source where they were created.
Potential cosmic sources are violent events in the universe such as a star exploding at the end of its life, or a black hole eating its own galaxy and accelerating particles via magnetic lines and spewing them into the universe.
In my research, I analyzed the first 300 days of data from the first 6 to 8 lines of the detector to see if we can say of 100 pre-selected sources that they are neutrino sources. The research has not yet been able to pinpoint a source with sufficient significance, but with the detector growing rapidly and the analysis all set up, it offers hope for the near future.
KM3NeT is short for cubic kilometer (km³) neutrino telescope. It will be a network of 230 lines of light-sensitive sensors to measure neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles that – because they have no charge, barely any mass, and can interact with matter only via the weak nuclear force – can fly through anything. An added benefit of this, is that neutrinos point directly back to the source where they were created.
Potential cosmic sources are violent events in the universe such as a star exploding at the end of its life, or a black hole eating its own galaxy and accelerating particles via magnetic lines and spewing them into the universe.
In my research, I analyzed the first 300 days of data from the first 6 to 8 lines of the detector to see if we can say of 100 pre-selected sources that they are neutrino sources. The research has not yet been able to pinpoint a source with sufficient significance, but with the detector growing rapidly and the analysis all set up, it offers hope for the near future.
The PhD defense will take place on Tuesday 11 July, at 14.00 in the Aula of the University, Singel 411, 1012 WN Amsterdam.
The PhD defense can be attended online:
Getting to the point | First cosmic neutrino source search with the KM3NeT/ARCA detector – (Aula der Universiteit – Live) – 11-7-2023_001
Live-stream link
Live-stream link
More information op de website van de UvA.
Supervisor: prof. dr. ir. P.J. de Jong
Co-supervisor: dr. A.J. Heijboer
contact: Rasa Muller
