Following the light:Novel event reconstruction techniques for neutrino oscillation analyses in KM3NeT/ORCA

Neutrinos are tiny, subatomic particles which currently present some outstanding questions in the field of particle physics. Though neutrino oscillations are now an understood phenomenon, efforts are still underway to measure the neutrino oscillation parameters even more precisely. Furthermore, the ordering of the three neutrino mass states relative to one another - the neutrino mass ordering - is still unknown. The KM3NeT/ORCA detector is currently being built in the Mediterranean Sea to address such questions. This infrastructure surrounds huge volumes of seawater with photodetectors, bypassing the tiny interaction cross section of these particles, and detecting the Cherenkov radiation of products of neutrino interactions in the water. In this thesis, the software used to simulate atmospheric muons in the detector using parametric formulae is tuned to KM3NeT/ORCA data, resulting in an improved simulation of the atmospheric muons, which form the main background for neutrino analyses. A novel neutrino event reconstruction algorithm is developed and explored in this thesis, aiming to reconstruct neutrino events with both a track-like and particle shower-like component. The estimate of the reconstructed neutrino energy is improved upon with this technique, as well as directly reconstructing the fractional energy transfer to the hadronic shower component of the interaction. This reconstruction technique also shows the potential for identifying different neutrino interaction channels. The improved energy estimate and the potential to identify the interaction channel pave the way for future analyses, leading to an improved measurement of the neutrino oscillation parameters and determination of the yet-unknown neutrino mass ordering

Estimation of a coronal mass ejection magnetic field strength using radio observations of gyrosynchrotron radiation

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large eruptions of plasma and magnetic field from the low solar corona into interplanetary space. These eruptions are often associated with the acceleration of energetic electrons which produce various sources of high intensity plasma emission. In relatively rare cases, the energetic electrons may also produce gyrosynchrotron emission from within the CME itself, allowing for a diagnostic of the CME magnetic field strength. Such a magnetic field diagnostic is important for evaluating the total magnetic energy content of the CME, which is ultimately what drives the eruption. Here, we report on an unusually large source of gyrosynchrotron radiation in the form of a type IV radio burst associated with a CME occurring on 2014-September-01, observed using instrumentation from the Nançay Radio Astronomy Facility. A combination of spectral flux density measurements from the Nançay instruments and the Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN) from 300 MHz to 5 GHz reveals a gyrosynchrotron spectrum with a peak flux density at ∼1 GHz. Using this radio analysis, a model for gyrosynchrotron radiation, a non-thermal electron density diagnostic using the Fermi Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and images of the eruption from the GOES Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), we were able to calculate both the magnetic field strength and the properties of the X-ray and radio emitting energetic electrons within the CME. We find the radio emission is produced by non-thermal electrons of energies >1 MeV with a spectral index of δ ∼ 3 in a CME magnetic field of 4.4 G at a height of 1.3 R�, while the X-ray emission is produced from a similar distribution of electrons but with much lower energies on the order of 10 keV. We conclude by comparing the electron distribution characteristics derived from both X-ray and radio and show how such an analysis can be used to define the plasma and bulk properties of a CME

Direct comparison of sterile neutrino constraints from cosmological data, νe\nu_{e} disappearance data and νμ→νe\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow\nu_{e} appearance data in a 3+13+1 model

We present a quantitative, direct comparison of constraints on sterile neutrinos derived from neutrino oscillation experiments and from Planck data, interpreted assuming standard cosmological evolution. We extend a $1+1$ model, which is used to compare exclusions contours at the 95% CL derived from Planck data to those from $\nu_{e}$-disappearance measurements, to a $3+1$ model. This allows us to compare the Planck constraints with those obtained through $\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow\nu_{e}$ appearance searches, which are sensitive to more than one active-sterile mixing angle. We find that the cosmological data fully exclude the allowed regions published by the LSND, MiniBooNE and Neutrino-4 collaborations, and those from the gallium and rector anomalies, at the 95% CL. Compared to the exclusion regions from the Daya Bay $\nu_{e}$-disappearance search, the Planck data are more strongly excluding above $|\Delta m^{2}_{41}|\approx 0.1\, \mathrm{eV}^{2}$ and $m_\mathrm{eff}^\mathrm{sterile}\approx 0.2\, \mathrm{eV}$, with the Daya Bay exclusion being stronger below these values. Compared to the combined Daya Bay/Bugey/MINOS exclusion region on $\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow\nu_{e}$ appearance, the Planck data is more strongly excluding above $\Delta m^{2}_{41}\approx 5\times 10^{-2}\,\mathrm{eV}^{2}$, with the exclusion strengths of the Planck data and the Daya Bay/Bugey/MINOS combination becoming comparable below this value.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.