Neutrino Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Schott
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554005327

With the first observation of collider neutrinos at the FASER experiment in 2023, a new field of neutrino physics has opened up. Collider neutrinos are a completely new probe in fundamental physics, allowing for the first time precision cross section measurements of high energetic neutrinos with significant implications on our understanding of proton structure functions, astrophysical processes and new tests of lepton universality. The expected background rates during the high luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are too high for the continuing operation of the current neutrino system at FASER, as it is based on a passive emulsion detector technology. In order to exploit the full potential of collider neutrino physics, it is therefore crucial to develop a new experimental approach in the coming five years. Within the Neutrinos@LHC research project, a new active neutrino detector at the FASER experiment, aFASERv, will be designed, constructed, installed and operated during the Run 4 of the LHC. This detector will allow for precision measurements of electron, muon and tau neutrino interactions up to a precision of 5% with significant implications for fundamental models within Quantum Chromodynamics. Even more strikingly, the detector will allow for the first experimental observation of anti-tau neutrinos, which are arguable the last missing particles of the Standard Model. The new detector system will employ the Micromegas Gridpix technology for the first time at large scale, yielding the first active muon neutrino detector system with integrated vertexing, tracking and energy reconstruction capabilities.

• DFG Programme: Reinhart Koselleck Projects