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  Atmospheric Neutrino Mixing Studies with the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO)


   Department of Physics

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  Prof Costas Andreopoulos, Prof Xianguo Lu  Applications accepted all year round  Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

About the Project

Neutrinos are the most abundant massive particle in the universe. Since their discovery, neutrinos played an important role in many areas of physics: They were used to study the weak nuclear force, to illuminate the quark structure of hadrons, and to confirm our models of astrophysical phenomena. With the discovery that neutrinos have mass, they took centre stage as the object of study. The study of neutrino properties allows us to probe origin of neutrino mass, the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, and the existence of new particles and forces.

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a state-of-the-art multi-purpose neutrino experiment being built 700 m underground in south China, 53 km away from the Taishan and Yangjiang nuclear power plants. It is a 20-kiloton liquid scintillator (LS) detector, the largest ever built, instrumented with 20,000 large (20'') photomultipliers providing exceptionally high (>75%) optical coverage. With an excellent energy resolution of 3% at 1 MeV, a very high efficiency of neutron tagging (~100%), a low radioactivity background level (reaching the initial radiopurity level of Borexino), and a low energy threshold (0.2 MeV), the JUNO detector's capabilities enable measurement strategies based on the distinctive signal properties of neutrino interactions, such as neutron multiplicity, charged pion multiplicity and decays of the unstable remaining nuclei. Detecting reactor neutrinos at a medium baseline and using a novel technique that exploits the interference between the solar and atmospheric oscillation frequencies, the primary goal of JUNO is to determine the neutrino mass ordering. The experiment has a uniquely rich complementary program to study solar and atmospheric neutrinos, geoneutrinos and neutrinos from core-collapse supernova. JUNO is expected to start taking data in 2024.

The PhD project will focus on the analysis of atmospheric neutrino data in JUNO and will aim to enhance the JUNO neutrino mass ordering sensitivity, well above the level that could be achieved by 2030 using reactor antineutrinos only. The effort holds the promise of enabling the first unambiguous determination of the mass ordering by the end of this decade. The candidate will focus on atmospheric neutrino selection and kinematic reconstruction using Machine Learning techniques, contribute to the development, tuning and uncertainty evaluations of atmospheric neutrino flux calculations and GENIE-based interaction simulations (http://www.genie-mc.org), and will take a lead role developing a comprehensive, multi-channel JUNO atmospheric neutrino analysis in VALOR (https://valor.pp.rl.ac.uk). The supervisory team has key activities in these areas: Prof. Andreopoulos leads the GENIE and VALOR efforts, and Prof. Lu co-convenes the JUNO neutrino interaction working group.

The successful candidate will join the Particle Physics group at the University of Liverpool is one of the UKs largest Particle Physics groups, holding research grants of around £22M and operating research infrastructure facilities worth £30M. With a staff complement of 65 leading academics, physicists, engineers and technologists, it trains around 60 post graduate research students at any time. Particle Physics is a major theme for the University of Liverpool and the group has strong support at the School and Faculty levels. The group is active at CERN (ATLAS, LHC-b, FASER, MUonE), at J-PARC (T2K, Super-K, Hyper-K), at JUNO, at SNOLAB (SNO+), at Fermilab (g-2, mu2e, SBND, DUNE), at PSI (mu3e, muEDM) and in astroparticle physics (CTA), Dark Matter (LZ, Darkside-20k) and the use of quantum technology for fundamental physics (AION, MAGIS-100). In recent years the group has delivered the ATLAS Silicon Endcap-C, the LHC-b VeLo and VeLo pixel upgrade, the ND280 ECAL for T2K, cathode planes for the SBND TPC, and tracker stations the FNAL g-2 experiment. Currently the group is developing and building detectors and other systems for the ATLAS HL-LHC Inner tracker upgrades, for the Mu2e and Mu3e experiments, for Hyper-K, for MAGIS-100 and for DUNE.

The successful candidate would have the option to join LIV.INNO, the Liverpool Centre for Doctoral Training for Innovation in Data Intensive Sciences and would have access to targeted training on data science. Information about LIV.INNO can be found in: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/centre-for-doctoral-training-for-innovation-in-data-intensive-science/

We are keen to accept application from Chinese candidates who are eligible to apply for a joint scholarship offered by the University of Liverpool and the China Scholarship Council (CSC). Details for the joint scholarship scheme can be found in: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/paying-for-your-studies/scholarships-and-bursaries/postgraduate-researchers/other-scholarships-and-awards/china-scholarship-council-award/

The project will nominally start in October 1st 2025, and it will be carried out over 48 months. The candidate will be based at Liverpool and will make frequent visits to Warwick, as well as other UK sites, to collaborate with JUNO-UK scientists. There would be frequent travel in China and other overseas institutes to enable participation in JUNO analysis activities, as well as an opportunity for a long-term attachment in China to participate in JUNO data-taking operations.

How to apply

Please see the applications page on the University website. You will need to include the project code PPPR055.

Computer Science (8) Engineering (12) Mathematics (25) Physics (29)

Funding Notes

Awaiting Funding Decision/Possible External Funding. We are keen to accept application from Chinese candidates who are eligible to apply for a joint scholarship offered by the University of Liverpool and the China Scholarship Council (CSC). For a successful candidate, the studentship will cover the fees; and a tax-free maintenance allowance (standard UKRI PhD stipend) for the duration of the project (48 months). Generous additional support for short-term research trips and long-term attachments is likely.

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