Physics Simulations to Underpin Discoveries in the Neutrino Sector
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
In spite of the recent experimental and theoretical progress, a comprehensive description of neutrino-nucleus interactions in the few-GeV energy range is still missing. Neutrino-nucleus interaction uncertainties dominate the systematic error budget of current and future neutrino oscillation experiments and they have a detrimental effect on the sensitivity of those experiments to new physics. The GENIE Neutrino Monte Carlo generator is the world's most commonly-used simulation of neutrino interaction physics and it is employed by nearly all current and near-future accelerator-based neutrino experiments. GENIE provides an interface between theory and experiment, and it plays a fundamental role in our attempts to connect experimentally observed quantities to true neutrino properties. This project will focus on the further development of the GENIE global analysis of neutrino scattering data and will enable a) the deployment of improved comprehensive simulations and b) the careful, data-driven characterisation of simulation uncertainties. A substantial progress has already been made in the GENIE global analysis of neutrino CC (quasi-elastic enhanced) data and this project will extend the GENIE analysis to CC (resonance-enhanced) data. Due to the complexity of the underlying physics processes, the most reliable models are constructed from an amalgamation of (currently incomplete) theory and experimental data. Precise new neutrino data would offer new opportunities to further improve our empirical comprehensive models of neutrino-nucleus scattering. By the end of this decade, some of most precise measurements of neutrino interaction characteristics will come from the from the Fermilab short-baseline (SBN) programme and, in particular, from the SBND experiment starting data-taking operations in 2018. Liverpool already plays a central role in SBND, and this project will bridge the GENIE development and SBND physics exploitation activities in Liverpool. The new GENIE global tunes will be tested exhaustively against SBND data and work will be carried out, as part of this project, towards a CC measurement at SBND and its incorporation in the GENIE global analysis.
Publications
Acciarri R.
(2020)
Construction of precision wire readout planes for the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND)
in arXiv e-prints
Andreopoulos C.
(2019)
Summary of the NuSTEC Workshop on Shallow- and Deep-Inelastic Scattering
in arXiv e-prints
Tena-Vidal J
(2021)
Neutrino-nucleon cross-section model tuning in GENIE v3
in Physical Review D
Tena-Vidal J
(2022)
Hadronization model tuning in genie v3
in Physical Review D
Alvarez-Ruso L
(2021)
Recent highlights from GENIE v3
in The European Physical Journal Special Topics
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/P006752/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2024 | |||
| 2021488 | Studentship | ST/P006752/1 | 01/10/2017 | 31/12/2021 | Julia Tena Vidal |
| Description | GENIE Collaboration |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Main developer of GENIE public tunes: https://hep.ph.liv.ac.uk/~costasa/genie/tunes.html . Involved software developement, physics modeling and data analysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | C.Andreopoulos is the main developer of the GENIE MC. M.Roda adapted the Professor software to GENIE and developed the main Comparisons software within GENIE (private) |
| Impact | In this website, the list of public tunes are numbered: https://hep.ph.liv.ac.uk/~costasa/genie/tunes.html The tunes are being used by a number of neutrino collaborations such as MiniBooNE. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | POSITIONING, NAVIGATION AND TIMINGUSING NEUTRINOPARTICLES |
| Organisation | GMV Innovating Solutions |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Myself and others from the university of Liverpool are responsible for the modelling aspect to validate how viable a navigation like this would be. In particular, we are responsible for developing theory and simulation concept, including message coding and decoding, estimation of neutrino beam, channel parameters and derivation of "link budget". We also assessed on the type of detectors and materials that would suit a project of this characteristics. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Myself and others from the university of Liverpool are responsible for the modelling aspect to validate how viable a navigation like this would be. In particular, we are responsible for developing theory and simulation concept, including message coding and decoding, estimation of neutrino beam, channel parameters and derivation of "link budget". We also assessed on the type of detectors and materials that would suit a project of this characteristics. |
| Impact | Multi-disciplinary contribution. State of the art of the project and perspectives for the future |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Short Baseline Near detector |
| Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Brief pion muon separation study |
| Collaborator Contribution | Detector and software development as well as analysis tools |
| Impact | Physics related studies and analysis. GENIE-tunes systematic will be useful for the collaboration. |
| Start Year | 2017 |