Albert De Roeck professor

Research Albert De Roeck

Research team

Towards the discovery or exclusion of neutrino oscillations at short baseline with the SoLid experiment. 01/01/2017 - 31/12/2020

Abstract

Our current understanding of the most elementary building blocks of matter and their interactions is summarized in the Standard Model of particle physics. Within this Standard Model, neutrinos are the most puzzling. Decades of experiments have lead to the conclusion that neutrinos have a very small mass. Due to this small mass, a neutrino of a certain flavor has a non-zero probability to oscillate to a neutrino of another flavor. Oscillations between the three neutrinos in the Standard Model have been observed typically over large distances (>1km) from the place where they were produced. Over the last years, a deficit of the observed number of neutrinos at short distances (<100m) from reactors is measured. This could be an indication of an oscillation to a fourth and new type of neutrino. The aim of recent short baseline neutrino experiments is to prove or discard the hypothesis of the existence of the so-called sterile neutrino. One of the most promising short baseline experiments that is able to answer this question is the SoLid experiment. The SoLid detector is a neutrino detector consisting of plastic scintillator cubes with Li-6 screens installed at a the BR2 reactor at SCK-CEN in Mol, Belgium. The detector setup has been tested thoroughly over the last years and a 5 times larger detector is currently being constructed. This project aims to record and analyze the new data in order to provide an answer to the sterile neutrino hypothesis in the next 4 years.

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  • Research Project

Search for sterile neutrinos at the Belgian BR2 reactor. 01/01/2015 - 31/12/2018

Abstract

With this project the universities of Antwerpen, Gent and Brussels, and the SCK-CEN Mol intend to construct a competitive short baseline reactor neutrino detector at the BR2 research reactor with a thermal power between 60-80MW located at the SCK-CEN in Mol.

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  • Research Project

Study of the strong interaction and search for "New Physics" using forward particle detection at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. 01/01/2007 - 31/12/2010

Abstract

The Large Hadron Collider, LHC, will start operating at CERN in 2007. The Particle Physics group of the University of Antwerp is a participant in the CMS experiment. Major physics goals are the understanding of the electroweak symmetry breaking, the search for signals of 'new physics' such as supersymmetry or large extra dimensions, and the study of Quantum Chromodynamics processes. The Forward Physics program, the subject of this proposal, aims at enhancing the capabilities of the CMS experiment for diffractive and forward physics. The project will concentrate on the use of forward proton detection as a unique means to discover new physics at the LHC.

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  • Research Project

Study of proton-proton interactions in the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN. 01/01/2007 - 31/12/2010

Abstract

This project aims to analyse the data that will collected by the CMS detector at the LHC accelerator. It consist mainly of the research of the top quark and so-called "diffraction and forward physics". To realise this a contribution will be made to the development of a Belgian TIER-2 GRID computing centre.

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  • Research Project