Measuring the Muon Flux of Neutrino Beams with a Novel Gas Cherenkov Detector

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/37720d398

Abstract

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is a future long-baseline neutrino experiment that plans to make measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters. This experiment will require accurate estimates of the neutrino fluxes through the near and far detectors; however, these estimates rely heavily on Monte-Carlo models of hadronic interactions. In order to verify these Monte-Carlo flux estimates with physical data, the by-product muon beam can be observed using modest detectors. These measurements of the muon flux can then be used in conjunction with hadronic models to constrain predictions of the neutrino flux. In order to perform measurements of the muon flux of the future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, a muon monitoring system will be implemented. As part of this muon monitoring system, a novel Cherenkov detector will perform measurements of the muon beam spectrum and divergence. This thesis describes the research and development efforts to determine this detector design's capabilities that are currently being undertaken at the University of Colorado Boulder and at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab in Illinois.

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