NOvA is currently one of the leading long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments in the world. The experiment operates two detectors in the world’s most powerful neutrino beam. The two detectors are separated by over 800km and as the neutrinos travel between the two detectors they undergo quantum-mechanical mixing which result in distortions to the energy and flavour content of the beam at the far detector. The measurements made by the NOvA experiment in the next four years will be the most precise in the world.
The key uncertainty for the experiment is related to understanding how to convert between the electronic signals from the detectors’ photosensors and the actual energy of a neutrino that interacted in the detector. The PhD student will focus on improving the NOvA neutrino oscillation measurement through a multi prong approach: