Neutrino physics studies in the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO)

Neutrinos are the most abundant massive particle in the universe. Since their discovery, neutrinos played an important role in many areas of physics: They were used to study the weak nuclear force, to illuminate the quark structure of hadrons, and to confirm our models of astrophysical phenomena. With the discovery that neutrinos have mass, they took centre stage as the object of study. The study of neutrino properties allows us to probe origin of neutrino mass, the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, and the existence of new particles and forces.

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a state-of-the-art multi-purpose neutrino experiment being built 700 m underground in south China, 53 km away from the Taishan and Yangjiang nuclear power plants. It is a 20-kiloton liquid scintillator (LS) detector, the largest ever built, instrumented with 20,000 large (20'') photomultipliers providing exceptionally high (>75%) optical coverage. With an excellent energy resolution of 3% at 1 MeV, a very high efficiency of neutron tagging (~100%), a low radioactivity background level (reaching the initial radiopurity level of Borexino), and a low energy threshold (0.2 MeV), the JUNO detector's capabilities enable measurement strategies based on the distinctive signal properties of neutrino interactions, such as neutron multiplicity, charged pion multiplicity and decays of the unstable remaining nuclei. Detecting reactor neutrinos at a medium baseline and using a novel technique that exploits the interference between the solar and atmospheric oscillation frequencies, the primary goal of JUNO is to determine the neutrino mass ordering. The experiment has a uniquely rich complementary program to study solar and atmospheric neutrinos, geoneutrinos and neutrinos from core-collapse supernova. JUNO construction is currently completed and the liquid filling process has begun. The experiment is expected to start taking physics data in 2025.

 

JUNO is a multi-purpose neutrino experiment and several JUNO PhD thesis projects can be offered at Liverpool. We invite application from candidates with a keen interest in at least one of the following areas: i) precision studies of neutrino mixing, ii) dark sector searches, iii) detection of diffuse supernova neutrino background, iv) reconstruction of neutrino interactions using Machine Learning techniques, and v) neutrino event simulation.

 

The successful candidate will join the Particle Physics group at the University of Liverpool is one of the UKs largest Particle Physics groups, holding research grants of around £22M and operating research infrastructure facilities worth £30M. With a staff complement of 65 leading academics, physicists, engineers and technologists, it trains around 60 post graduate research students at any time. Particle Physics is a major theme for the University of Liverpool and the group has strong support at the School and Faculty levels. The group is active at CERN (ATLAS, LHC-b, FASER, MUonE), at J-PARC (T2K, Super-K, Hyper-K), at JUNO, at SNOLAB (SNO+), at Fermilab (g-2, mu2e, SBND, DUNE), at PSI (mu3e, muEDM) and in astroparticle physics (CTA), Dark Matter (LZ, Darkside-20k) and the use of quantum technology for fundamental physics (AION, MAGIS-100). In recent years the group has delivered the ATLAS Silicon Endcap-C, the LHC-b VeLo and VeLo pixel upgrade, the ND280 ECAL for T2K, cathode planes for the SBND TPC, and tracker stations the FNAL g-2 experiment. Currently the group is developing and building detectors and other systems for the ATLAS HL-LHC Inner tracker upgrades, for the Mu2e and Mu3e experiments, for Hyper-K, for MAGIS-100 and for DUNE.

 

Besides receiving targeted training in Particle Physics, the successful candidate would have the option to join LIV.INNO as an associate. LIV.INNO the Liverpool Centre for Doctoral Training for Innovation in Data Intensive Sciences and would have access to targeted training on data science. Information about LIV.INNO can be found in: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/centre-for-doctoral-training-for-innovation-in-data-intensive-science/

 

The candidate will be based at Liverpool, with frequent travel in the UK and in overseas institutes to collaborate with JUNO scientists. There would be frequent travel in China, as well as an opportunity for a long-term attachment, to participate in JUNO data-taking operations.

 

 

 

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