The Phenomenology of Non-standard Neutrino Interactions at Large Neutrino Detectors
Open Access
Author:
Wright, Warren Peter
Graduate Program:
Physics
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
April 07, 2015
Committee Members:
Irina Mocioiu, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Irina Mocioiu, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Douglas Cowen, Committee Member Tyce De Young, Committee Member Péter Mészáros, Committee Member Richard Wallace Robinett, Special Member
Keywords:
Neutrino NSI IceCube DeepCore
Abstract:
The standard theory describing neutrino oscillations only uses the interactions predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. However, there is plenty of room for non-standard interactions (NSI) to exist. This is because extra interactions are allowed by experimental error bars and even expected at some level from effective theory arguments. My research has been in examining the phenomenological consequences of NSI at large atmospheric neutrino detectors like IceCube DeepCore. Of particular focus are the degeneracies between and within the standard neutrino oscillation parameters and the NSI parameters. These degeneracies will be explored both analytically and numerically, and strategies to lift them will also be discussed.
