The NOνA Experiment

There is compelling evidence that neutrinos change flavor, implying that neutrinos are massive and that leptons mix. SMU, under the direction of Thomas Coan, is a member of the international NOνA collaboration that proposes to study the oscillation of muon neutrinos produced at Fermilab into electron neutrinos detected by a massive 25~kiloton detector in northern Minnesota. Key experimental goals of this second generation neutrino experiment are establishing the "mass hierarchy" of the neutrino mass eigenstates, measuring the electron component in the singlet mass eigenstate, and detecting CP violation in the neutrino sector. Coan is currently developing novel instrumentation for quality assurance of the NOνA's 18.5 kilotons of liquid scintillator.