A Study of the Existence of Massive Neutrinos and Their Interactions

Abstract

This paper will begin by describing the early neutrino experiments conducted primarily by Fredrick Reines and Clyde Cowan, also known as "Project Poltergeist." Next I will introduce neutrino theory and its vocabulary more explicitly as it was originally modeled by Fermi and expand on that. Then I will examine adding neutrino mass to the standard model of the atom. After that I will explain the implications of neutrino mass and oscillations, since this begins to elaborate the primary concern of this paper. A section on the solar and atmospheric evidence for neutrino oscillations will follow and briefly examine how neutrino oscillations can explain apparent deficiencies in the neutrino detection rate in these areas. Next I will talk about incorporating neutrino oscillations into theory and interpreting experiments and also describe their possible effect on astrophysics. After that I will spend some time describing the motivation for MiniBooNE: LSND, and why the results of LSND warrant another look into the possibility of massive neutrinos. Finally, I will wrap up the paper by describing MiniBooNE and my analysis, and describing the results of my research and the possibility of non-standard interactions with neutrino oscillation probabilities.