The Search for Relic Neutrinos

Note: Thursday at 3:30 PM; Joint with HEE
Speaker: Dr. Mariangela Lisanti, Princeton University

When: December 4, 2014 (Thu), 03:30PM to 04:30PM (add to my calendar)
Location: PRB 595

This event is part of the HET Seminar Series.

Abstract: The cosmic neutrino background, produced about one second after the Big Bang, permeates the Universe today. New technological advancements make neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei a clear path forward towards the detection of these relic neutrinos. We show that gravitational focusing by the Sun causes the expected neutrino capture rate to modulate annually. The amplitude and phase of the modulation depend on the phase-space distribution of the local neutrino background, which is perturbed by structure formation. In addition, we show that relic neutrino observatories may measure anisotropies in the cosmic neutrino velocity and spin distributions by polarizing the tritium targets. The polarized-target measurements may also constrain non-standard neutrino interactions that would induce larger anisotropies and help discriminate between Majorana versus Dirac neutrinos.