Testing Explanations of Short Baseline Neutrino Anomalies [Hardcover]

This thesis, encompassing both theory to experiment, guides the reader in a pedagogical way through the authors 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.

Chapter 1: Prologue.- Part 1: Active and Sterile Neutrinos.- Chapter 2: Neutrinos within the Standard Model.- Chapter 3: Short baseline anomalies.- Chapter 4: Neutrinos beyond the Standard Model.- Part 2: Heavy Sterile Neutrino Explanations.- Chapter 5: Minimal and non-minimal models.- Chapter 6: Dark Neutrinos.- Part 3: Light Sterile Neutrino Explanations.- Chapter 7: The Micro Booster Neutrino Beam Experiment.- Chapter 8: Identifying neutrinos: tracks and showers.- Chapter 9: The quest for electron neutrinos.- Chapter 10: Interpreting the results.- Chapter 11: Epilogue.

Nicol? Foppiani is working for the NGO Officine Italia, that he co-founded in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, to increase youth participation in public policy and agenda setting. He graduated with a physics PhD at Harvard in 2022. His thesis work focused on neutrino physics and the search for sterile nel“.