A search for antineutrino disappearance with the SoLid detector Phase-I data
File(s)
Author(s)
Galbinski, Daniel
Type
Thesis
Abstract
A search for antineutrino disappearance to a sterile state with the SoLid detector Phase-I data is presented. Sterile neutrinos are well-motivated by recent anomalies in experimental neutrino data at short baseline, most notably the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly (RAA), and appear in many extensions to the Standard Model. SoLid (Search for Oscillations with a Lithium-6 Detector) is a very-short-baseline neutrino experiment based at the BR2 research reactor in Mol, Belgium. The detector features a dual-scintillator technology and segmented design that enables the products of inverse beta decay (IBD) interactions to be tagged and reconstructed in three spatial dimensions. The detector granularity also facilitates the effective isolation of the IBD positron from the rest of the visible energy. The analyses conducted for this thesis utilise topological information and machine learning tools to suppress the extremely high rates of background from radioactive and atmospheric sources. A method for extracting the antineutrino energy spectrum as a function of position is applied to the full Phase-I dataset, resulting in 29479 +/- 603 (stat.) IBD candidates with a signal-to-background ratio of 0.26. The spectrum is analysed by a rate-independent fit of the 3+1 neutrino model. No evidence of mixing between active and sterile neutrino states is observed and a portion of the relevant parameter space is excluded at the 90% confidence level (CL), including some of the RAA 95% CL region. Finally, SoLid data is successfully employed to make other measurements, such as antineutrino directionality, that have potential applications in reactor monitoring and nuclear safeguards.
Version
Open Access
Date Issued
2023-11
Date Awarded
2024-03
Copyright Statement
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Licence
License URL
Advisor
Vacheret, Antonin
Publisher Department
Physics
Publisher Institution
Imperial College London
Qualification Level
Doctoral
Qualification Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)