Neutrino Oscillations
Introduction
This research project was undertaken during the 2021/2022 course and it was done in collaboration with Alex Bohane, Jabeth Musumba and William Wang. It was the final project for the course Research Methods in Physics that I took as part of my degree in Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh.
The project explores the physical phenomena known as Neutrino Oscillations. It provides a brief introduction to the mathematical framework of Quantum Mechanics and offers a mathematical derivation of this phenomena from QM principles. Additionaly, it investigates some of the experimental evidence behind Neutrino Oscillations and some of the features that are currently being researched related to them.
Abstract
Neutrinos are one of the more elusive particles in the standard model and a reason for this is their incredibly small mass. While initially assumed to be zero, the idea of a ‘massless neutrino’ was disproved with the discovery of neutrino oscillations; the phenomenon observed where neutrinos transmute between different types or “flavours”. Using a quantum mechanical framework, a derivation for neutrino oscillations was formed in this paper. Following from this, the experimental results from Super-Kamiokande and Sadbury National Observatories were presented showing evidence of neutrino oscillations and proof that neutrinos have non-zero mass. The implications of neutrino oscillations, such as the validity of claims made about neutrino speed, as well as the possibility of charge parity symmetry violation were discussed.