3:30 pm Zoom
ANNIE: Neutron multiplicity in neutrino interactions and new technologies
Vincent Fischer, Iowa State
The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE) aims at measuring the neutron abundance in the final state of neutrino-nucleus interactions. This measurement will have a direct impact on our understanding of neutrino interactions and will lead to a better reduction of systematic errors and an improvement of signal-background discrimination in future large neutrino detectors, thus impacting long baseline oscillation experiments as well as proton decay searches and supernova detection.
With a volume of about 30 tons of pure water doped with gadolinium to enhance neutron tagging efficiency, ANNIE will provide a measurement of the neutron yield of neutrino interactions as a function of the neutrino energy in the well-characterized Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab.
The modularity of ANNIE will allow it to perform several fundamental tests of new technologies to be used in future neutrino detectors, such as a novel kind of photodetectors called Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors and Water-based Liquid Scintillator, a newly developed detection medium.
The technology behind the ANNIE detector will have a noticeable impact on the development of future large water Cherenkov detectors as well as on detection techniques for neutrino physics.
This seminar will cover the physics case that led to the ANNIE concept, the design and construction of the detector, the new technologies it will deploy and the first results of the ANNIE physics phase.