May 2025
Simulating the future of neutrinos
“My main project focuses on analysis and simulations for the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). This experiment will study the properties of neutrinos using accelerator collisions as a source and is currently under development and construction.
DUNE will consist of two detectors: One will be positioned in front of the beam; the other one will be 1300 km away from it. The near detector will measure the neutrino flux from the beam, and the far detector will measure the corresponding oscillating neutrino flux. In addition, the near detector will have an innovative approach: it will make measurements not only in front of the particle beam, but also in the perpendicular direction, up to a distance of 30 meters. The ability to move the near detector will allow us to measure different fluxes, which we can use to predict the flux at the far detector.
This is where my simulation work comes in. By performing these analyses and combining different fluxes and different positions, we will be able to predict the properties of the neutrinos with minimal dependence on their interaction with nuclei. In current experiments, this interaction is a source of uncertainty because the analysis depends on the theoretical model used to describe it.
©: Jonas Werner Photography
In my studies, I obtain an energy spectrum for the neutrinos and feed it into a simulation of the detector using the technical specifications of DUNE. I compare my simulations with the data that would be seen in our detector. Since we don’t have measurements yet, I obtain this data from additional simulations using results from other existing experiments as input. The goal is to minimize model dependence, but moving the detector away from the beam introduces new effects compared to the typical approach. The analysis is independent of the neutrino-nucleus interaction but instead depends on the measured fluxes.
When I started to investigate the measurements far from the beam, I realized that in this configuration some detector parameters have a large influence on the uncertainties. Since the detector is still under construction, I was able to develop ideas to reduce these effects with the help of the people responsible for the beam architecture.
This project is a two-way street: I use the detector specifications for my simulations, and at the same time we can use these results to do design reviews and find places to improve the performance of the experiment in the future.”
Dr. Ioana Caracas has been a postdoc with Prof. Alfons Weber since September 2022 and a member of the DUNE collaboration since then. Originally from Bucharest, she did her PhD at the University of Wuppertal. With her first postdoc, she has consolidated her passion for neutrino physics and wants to continue her research in this field.