12.07.2015 Views

Mohamad-Ziad Charif - Antares

Mohamad-Ziad Charif - Antares

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Chapter 3The ANTARES Neutrino TelescopeIn this chapter the detection of neutrinos with the ANTARES neutrino telescopeis discussed, followed by an overall review of the detector.3.1 Neutrino interaction with matterWhile neutrinos are abundant in the universe and are a frequent byproduct of anyprocess that involves the weak force, their detection is plagued by the fact thatthe neutrino cross section is extremely small since the only interactions a neutrinoexperiences are the weak force and the gravitational force. However, the υ-mattercross section increases with the energy of the neutrino as seen in Figure 3.1. Thisprovides us with the chance for the detection of high energy neutrinos interactingwith matter.Usually a neutrino interacting with matter, will either hit a neutron or a protonthat exists inside the nucleus of an atom. However, the only important distinctionis whether the interaction is via charged current (CC) or neutral current (NC) asseen in Figure 3.1. In a CC interaction the result is the corresponding lepton plusa hadronic shower, while the NC interaction results with the same flavor neutrinoand a hadronic shower (eq 3.1 & 3.2).CCν e + N/P → e + X (3.1)ν µ + N/P → µ + Xν τ + N/P → τ + XNCν e + N/P → ν e + X (3.2)33

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