Testing Explanations of Short Baseline Neutrino Anomalies

ISBN-13: 9783031408359 / Angielski / Miękka / 2024 / 216 str.

Nicolò Foppiani

Opis

This thesis, encompassing both theory to experiment, guides the reader in a pedagogical way through the author's attempts to resolve the mystery of the so-called MiniBooNE anomaly, where unexpected neutrino oscillations were reported, potentially explainable by the existence of light sterile neutrinos, but in contradiction with several null results. Within this context, this thesis reports one of the first analyses searching for an excess of electrons in the MicroBooNE experiment finding no excess of events and narrowing down the possible explanations for the anomaly. Additionally, this thesis explores non-minimal heavy neutral leptons as potential explanations for the MiniBooNE excess. To search for evidence for this particle, the author performs an analysis using data from the T2K experiment, which searched for pairs of electrons using a gas argon time projection. This thesis provides a comprehensive explanation of the MiniBooNE anomaly and test of its possibile explanation with liquid and gas time projection chambers.