Precise Calibration of Super-Kamiokande Photosensors

How can matter, including us, actually exist? According to the Big Bang theory, at the start of the Universe an even amount of matter and anti-matter was created, which should have all annihilated leaving nothing but photons.

Subatomic ghostly particles called neutrinos may be a critical piece of this puzzle. A phenomenon called neutrino oscillation was observed by the Super-Kamiokande experiment in 1998 and garnered the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. We can now explore whether these oscillations behave differently between neutrinos and antineutrinos, shedding light on this mystery. Super-K consists of over 11,000 single-photon sensors providing detailed images of light from particles produced by neutrino interactions.

An incomplete understanding of the uncertainties in the detector response limit the precision of the final measurement, which can mean the difference between a discovery or not. This project aims to implement extremely precise and detailed measurements of a single photosensor into the Super-K physics analysis to hopefully improve the understanding of the uncertainties in the detector response.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dean Karlen

Student:

Partner:

The University of Tokyo

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Victoria

Program: