Physics 711 and 712
Fall 2009 and Spring 2010
Neutrino Physics and
Astrophysics
This course is aimed at graduate students in
physics and astronomy, not restricted to particle physics. Auditing is
permitted, and faculty persons are welcome. There will be no ordinary homework,
but students will be expected to give one lecture per semester (towards the
latter part), on one of the topics, as they choose.
Professors John Learned and Sandip Pakvasa
Meetings: once per week,
Prospectus:
0. Introduction and
overview 711-1.ppt (8/28
and 9/2)
1. Summary of Standard
Model 711-SM1.pdf
(9/2 and 9/9)
Neutrino Interactions in the Standard Model
2. Neutrino Mass 711-SM1.pdf
(9/9)
General Theory ( Dirac vs Majorana etc); Nu Mass in
SM; GUTS, SU(5), SO(10) etc; See-Saw etc
3. Neutrino Mass
Experiments
Beta decay end point; e-capture; pi, K decays; tau decays; Double
Beta Decay
4. Neutrino Mixing and
Oscillations
Flavor Mixing; Sterile Mixing; CP Violation;
Non-orthogonality of massless nus; Kinematics, coherence etc; Matter Effects;
Neutrino Decays.
5. Atmospheric Neutrinos
Introduction to Cosmic Rays; Expectations for neutrino
fluxes; Comparison to data and implications; Future experiments and
expectations.
6. Solar Neutrinos
Modeling and fluxes; Summary of experiments and results;
Future expectations.
7. Reactor Neutrinos
KamLand experiment and results; Future Experiments;
Geo-Neutrinos and Future experiments.
8. Accelerator Neutrinos
K2K results; MINOS results; Future long baseline
experiments.
9. Summary of the current
status of 3 flavor mixing from global analysis of all data.
10. Summary of results of
LSND, MiniBoone and relevant phenomenology of sterile neutrinos
11. Neutrinos and
Supernovae
Supernova modeling neutrino expectations; Nus from SN1987A;
Future Supernovae detection and prognosis.
12. Very High Energy
Neutrino Astronomy
Very High Energy Gamma Ray Astrophysics; High Energy
Neutrinos from AGN, GRB etc (incl GZK neutrinos); Neutrino Telescopes and
Signals(KM3 etc).
13. Cosmology and
Neutrinos
Expected properties of CMB nus; Proposals for Detection of
CMB nus; BBN Nucleosynthesis and Nus; Leptogenysis.
14. WIMP Searches with
Neutrinos
15. Geoneutrinos
Student learning
outcomes: We would like the
students to acquire a first level working knowledge of the theory and
experiment in elementary particle physics and astrophysics, relative to
neutrinos. The course is designed
to bring graduate students and others to the level of professional
understanding of forefront neutrino work.
We will use the following two texts, more or
less:
Other useful general references are:
jgl and sp,