Inspire
Location
L'Europe | France
Job description
Job description:
Job description:
The Low Energy Neutrino Group at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) invites applications for a PhD student grant to contribute to the NUCLEUS experiment to study coherent elastic neutrino scattering (CEvNS) with reactor neutrinos at the Chooz nuclear power plant in the French Ardennes.
The first detection of CEvNS, a process crucial for understanding neutrino interactions with matter, at a nuclear reactor remains to be achieved, especially because the corresponding nuclear recoils lie in an energy regime (~100 eV) which is difficult to measure with conventional detection technologies, and also because of the unfavorable background conditions nuclear power plant environments generally offer. The NUCLEUS collaboration is therefore working on the design of an innovative detection system using two cryogenic calorimeter arrays (CaWO4 & Al2O3) capable of reaching ~10 eV energy thresholds, and surrounded by a twofold system of instrumented cryogenic vetoes, an external passive shielding and a muon veto to improve the identification and discrimination of backgrounds.
The selected candidate will join the NUCLEUS team during the ongoing commissioning and testing phase at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), followed by integration and relocation of the experiment to the Chooz nuclear power plant in 2024. The PhD work will involve contributing to the integration and commissioning operations, including tests, data acquisitions, and fine-tuning of detection systems, particularly focusing on the external cryogenic veto and muon veto systems, both designed and built by our team.
The student will be responsible for analyzing data from the commissioning phase to gain insights into detector performance and develop tools for diagnosing and processing of large volume of daily data (~10 TB) that will be taken during the experiment's first physics run.
Our team has proposed and is responsible for an innovative method for the calibration of very low energy nuclear recoils in cryogenic calorimeters, with the installation of a dedicated test bench on a low-power research reactor located at the Technical University of Vienna (Austria). The student may eventually get involved in this effort, with a view to interpreting the data collected at Chooz. The student will set up simple statistical tests to characterize the level of confidence with which a CEvNS signal can be extracted from the data after subtraction of the measured backgrounds. Finally, the student will use the first data from the physics run at Chooz to conduct a search for new physics beyond the standard model (measurement of the weak mixing angle at low energies, search for new neutrino couplings, constraints on the electromagnetic properties of the neutrino, etc.).
Applicants should hold a Master's degree in physics or a related field, with a strong academic record and a passion for experimental physics research. Previous experience in particle or astroparticle physics and data analysis will be advantageous.
The position is fixed-term for the period of 3 years starting in October 2024. Applications from candidates of all backgrounds are strongly encouraged.
If you are interested, please submit your application before the June 3rd 2024. Applications should be addressed directly to Dr. Matthieu Vivier ([email protected]). Also, questions can be directed to
this address. The application should contain a CV, a motivation letter, bachelor/master degree certificates along with the associated academic transcripts, and at least one contact person for reference)
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