HEP@VUB meetings

Thursday 20 Apr 2017, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Brussels

Jean Sacton seminar room (1G003) (Universe)

Speaker: Gwen De Wasseige

14:00 → 15:00 Solar atmospheric neutrinos: when vintage becomes fashion again + Scicomm appetizer

Recently three independent teams published studies of the solar atmospheric neutrino flux produced by Cosmic Ray interaction with the Sun, updating previous works from the 90’s. The interest for these solar neutrinos is twofold: this flux represents on its own a new way to constrain Solar and Neutrino physics but is also the main background for indirect dark matter searches targeting the Sun as a source of WIMPs annihilation signal. After browsing the main steps in the determination of this flux and its detectability, I will show how to define a neutrino floor for solar indirect searches. Comments on the weaknesses of these predictions and the path forward will be presented. To conclude I will project this neutrino floor in non-minimal DM scenarios. As an introduction, I will briefly report on the science communication effort that has been made around my recent trip to the South Pole.

Speaker: Gwenhael De Wasseige