Intermediate Neutrino Research Program Awards

The DOE Office of High Energy Physics has made two awards in response to the Intermediate Neutrino Research Program Funding Opportunity. We are pleased to announce that ANNIE and PROSPECT will investigate the properties and interactions of the known neutrinos and search for new types of neutrinos as part of our implementation of the strategic plan for the HEP program.

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Photomultiplier tubes on the inner structure of the ANNIE Experiment.

ANNIE

The physics of neutrino-nucleus interactions depends on the complex interplay of multiple particles and different length and energy scales. The number and type of nucleons ejected from the interaction can provide valuable constraints on the models of neutrino-nucleus interactions. The ANNIE experiment seeks to study the abundance of final state neutrons from neutrino-nucleus interactions. These measurements will improve our understanding of the many-body dynamics of neutrino-nucleus interactions. Furthermore, identifying and counting final state neutrons also provides a new and critical experimental handle for signal-background separation for future neutrino experiments. In addition to its physics goals, ANNIE is an effort that seeks to apply for the first time a promising new photodetector technology known as Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors (LAPPDs).

 

 

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PROSPECT collaborators assemble a prototype scintillation detector.

PROSPECT

is a reactor neutrino experiment at very short baselines to make a precision measurement of the flux and energy spectrum of antineutrinos emitted from nuclear reactors. PROSPECT will search for the oscillation signature of sterile neutrinos and test our understanding of the emission of antineutrinos from the fission products in a nuclear reactor. The measurements of PROSPECT will test our understanding of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, deepen our understanding of nuclear processes in a reactor, and help develop technology for the remote monitoring of nuclear reactors for safeguard and non-proliferation.