Exotic V[over-bar][subscript e] -->V[over-bar][subscript slash-e] oscillations in Double Chooz

In this thesis, we estimate the sensitivity of Double Chooz, a reactor Ve --> Ve experiment, to detect "early" neutrino oscillations based on a three-active plus one-sterile, or (3 + 1), neutrino mixing model by implementing a least-squares fit to the simulated electron antineutrino reactor spectrum1 . By comparing the expected spectra from the null hypothesis and the (3 + 1) oscillation hypothesis at the Double Chooz near detector L = 200 m, we expect a modest sterile neutrino discovery potential, limited by the ~ 2% reactor flux uncertainty. This potential may be expanded by employing a Double Chooz-like detector at a very short baseline L = 6 m from the reactor. At both baselines, the p-value for the null hypothesis was extremely small p ~ 0.004, which is compelling evidence for rejecting this hypothesis. Very short baseline antineutrino oscillation reactor experiments may help to resolve the current global incompatibilities between neutrino and antineutrino data sets.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• G. Duarte, Javier M. (Javier Mauricio Gonzalez Duarte)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Janet M. Conrad.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61255

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/61255