Thesis Committee: Kate Scholberg, Haiyan Gao, Chris Walter, and Seog Oh (exofficio non-voting member)
ABSTRACT:
Astrophysical models predict a diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos which should be an observable excess to the diffuse flux of atmospheric neutrinos at higher energies. Such ultra high energy (UHE) neutrinos are postulated to come from cosmic accelerators such as active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and gamma ray bursts (GRBs). This study searched for UHE neutrinos (above 1 TeV range) among Super_Kamiokande's highest energy sample by looking for UHE upward-going muons induced by UHE neutrinos interacting in the rock beneath the detector. A total of two UHE-upmu candidates were found in 860.37 days of livetime. This analysis uses the observed muon flux to place a 90% classical confidence level range on the muon flux due to cosmic neutrinos.
Here is the thesis in PDF: West_thesis.pdf