The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic kilometre scale detector for high-energy neutrinos above hundreds of GeV produced in Earth’s atmosphere as well as outside our solar system whenever particles are accelerated to ultra-relativistic energies. The prompt atmospheric contribution is a result of the creation of heavy mesons with charm components in the atmosphere. Past studies from IceCube using a maximum likelihood estimation over the whole neutrino energy spectrum always reported a best-fit zero prompt contribution so far [1–5], contrary to theory [6, 7]. In this analysis we tried to measure this prompt atmospheric flux in muon neutrino event data from different IceCube releases. In contrast to past studies we performed a binned least-squares fit of the conventional atmospheric flux from data at low energies and subtracted this fit and an astrophysical flux reported by IceCube to measure a prompt contribution. Due to a lack of statistics and accessible information from data releases, our results are also compatible with a zero prompt contribution.

Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse contraignent la masse des neutrinos dans le contexte de 4 modèles de matière noire en utilisant le spectre de puissance du flux transmit dans les forêts Lyman-alpha des quasars distants. Les neutrinos laissent une emprunte sur les grandes structures dans l'Univers à travers l'échelle à laquelle ils diffusent, qui se manifeste comme un déficit de fluctuations de densité de matière sur des distances inversement proportionnelles à leur masse. De l'ordre de quelques Mpc, ces échelles peuvent être sondées par les forêts Ly-$alpha$ qui tracent la densité d'hydrogène neutre atomique suivant la ligne de visée du quasar en arrière-plan. J'utilise le spectre de puissance Ly-$alpha$ construit grâce à deux relevés de grandes structures:les $13,821$ spectres optiques de quasars basse-résolution de la 9ème publication des données du SDSS/BOSS à 12 redshifts de $langle z rangle = 2.2$ à $4.4$; ainsi que la centaine de spectres de quasar haute-résolution du relevé XQ-100 du VLT à $langle z rangle = 3.20, 3.56$ et $3.93$. Ces deux relevés nous permettent de sonder les échelles de $k geqslant 0.001~s/mathrm{km}$ à $k leqslant 0.02$ et $k leqslant 0.07~ s/mathrm{km}$ respectivement.Modéliser le spectre de puissance Ly-$alpha$ nécessite résoudre le régime non-linéaire de formation des structure et modéliser le gaz inter-galactique dans les simulations cosmologiques hydrodynamiques destinées à cet effet. Je contrôle pour plusieurs incertitudes systématiques liées à ces simulations. Dans un premier temps, je quantifie la variance d'échantillonnage à l'aide de simulations tournées avec différentes conditions initiales. Dans un second temps, je teste la validité d'une méthode permettant de construire le spectre de puissance à partir de simulations plus petites et moins résolues. Pour ce, j'ai tourné une simulation évoluant $2 times 2048^3$ particules de matière noire et de baryons dans un covolume de $(100~h^{-1}mathrm{Mpc})^3$. Ce travail a permit à notre groupe d'améliorer les contraintes sur la masse des neutrinos de $sum m_nu < 0.15~mathrm{eV}$ établie précédemment à $sum m_nu < 0.12~mathrm{eV}$ à $95%$ de vraisemblance. J'ai ensuite tourné mes efforts vers l'implémentation de neutrinos stériles en tant qu'un candidat matière noire non-froide dans les simulations. En particulier, j'ai produit les contraintes les plus fortes (au moment de la publication) sur la masse des neutrinos stériles en tant que matière noire tiède: $m_nu lesssim 25~mathrm{keV}$ à $95%$ de vraisemblance. J'ai étendu l'étude dans le contexte d'une matière noire mixte et contraint l'abondance relative de la composante tiède par rapport à la froide. Enfin, j'ai complété ce travail en permettant une résonance dans la production des neutrinos stériles, réduisant ainsi leur échelle caractéristique de diffusion et refroidissant la matière tiède qu'ils incorporent. A ce but, j'ai initié une collaboration avec une équipe de physiciens théoriques impliqués dans les recherches astrophysiques de ces neutrinos stériles dits produits par résonance dans des objets riches en matière noire. Notre jeune collaboration a établi les premières contraintes sur leur masse en utilisant le spectre de puissance Ly-$alpha$. / In the work presented in this thesis, I use the power spectrum of the transmitted flux in the Lyman-alpha (Ly-$alpha$) forest of distant quasars to constrain the mass of cosmological neutrinos in the context of four seperate projects. Neutrinos leave a signature imprint on large scale structures in the Universe through their free-streaming, which manifests as a deficit of matter density fluctuations on typical length scales that are inversely proportional to their rest mass. This typical free-streeming scale, of order a few Mpc, can be probed by Ly-$alpha$ forests which are imprints of the neutral atomic Hydrogen density along the background quasar's line-of-sight. I use the Ly-$alpha$ flux power spectrum from mainly two large scale structure surveys: the $13,821$ low-resolution quasar spectra from the ninth data release of SDSS (BOSS) in 12 redshift bins from $langle z rangle = 2.2$ to $4.4$; and the $100$ high-resolution quasar spectra from the XQ-100 survey (of the VLT's XShooter spectrograph) in 3 redshift bins, $langle z rangle = 3.20, 3.56$ and $3.93$. This enables us to probe scales from $k geqslant 0.001~s/mathrm{km}$ to $k leqslant 0.02$ and $k leqslant 0.07~ s/mathrm{km}$ respectively.Modeling the flux power spectrum requires solving the non-linear regime of structure formation and the intergalactic gas in the cosmological hydrodynamics simulations that are used to that effect. I controlled for several of many systematic uncertainties related to the simulations. First, I ran simulations with different initial conditions to quantify the sampling variance. I then tested the accuracy of a splicing technique that we use to construct the flux power spectrum from lower size and lower resolution simulations. This required producing a complete run of a $(100~h^{-1}mathrm{Mpc})^3$ comoving cube containing $2 times 2048^3$ dark matter particles and baryons. This enabled our working group to enhance the previously established constraints on the sum of neutrino masses from $sum m_nu < 0.15~mathrm{eV}$ to the most stringent constraint to date $sum m_nu < 0.12~mathrm{eV}$ with $95%$ confidence. I then worked on implementing right-handed neutrinos in non-cold dark matter cosmological frameworks. A substancial amount of work has gone into applying plausible initial conditions that would accurately model the free-streaming effect of these types of particles. I put the most stringest constraints (at the time of publication) on the mass of non-resonantly produced sterile neutrinos as pure warm dark matter candidates, $m_nu lesssim 25~mathrm{keV}$ at $95%$ confidence. I extended this investigation into a mixed warm plus cold dark matter cosmology. Finally, I implement right-handed neutrinos produced in presence of a lepton asymmetry which boosts their production and lowers their free-streaming scale. I started a collaboration with a team of theoretical physicists involved in searching for astrophysical evidence for the existance of such resonantly-produced right-handed neutrinos in dark matter rich systems. Our new-born collaboration has enabled the first ever constraints on their mass using the Ly-$alpha$ forest power spectrum.

Cette thèse est dédiée à l’étude de la violation CP dans les processus ūd→tb̄ e⁻ μ⁻ et W⁻→ l-1 l-2 (q′¯ q)⁺. Il y a des expériences qui cherchent à identifier ces processus au grand collisionneur de hadrons, ou LHC (Large Hadron Collider). Une conséquence de l’observation de ces désintégrations impliquait une brisure de la conservation du nombre leptonique, car ∆L = 2. Si le neutrino est de type Majorana, il est sa propre antiparticule et on peut observer la double désintégration bêta sans émission de neutrino (0νββ). Ce processus est caractérisé par ∆L = 2. Si nous observons des processus similaires à 0νββ, ∆L = 2, au LHC, il y a aussi la possibilité de chercher la violation CP. La mesure de ce type de violation CP nous donnerait des informations sur de la Nouvelle Physique (NP) qui ne pourraient pas être facilement obtenues autrement. Il existe trois types de violation CP : directe, indirecte et cinématique (produit triple). Ce travail relève essentiellement mes études sur deux processus de violation CP, l’un direct et l’autre produit triple. Elles sont présentées dans deux articles qui sont inclus dans cette thèse. Le premier article est consacré au produit triple dans le processus : ūd→tb̄ e⁻ μ⁻ . Le modèle que nous avons considéré n’implique pas de neutrino de Majorana. À l’aide de MadGraph, nous avons étudié la violation CP pour les deux processus mentionnés pour deux versions du LHC, haute luminosité HL-LHC (14 TeV) et haute énergie HE-LHC (27 TeV),et pour un futur collisionneur FCC-hh (100 TeV). Nous trouvons que le produit triple n’est pas mesurable au HL-LHC, peut être mesurable au HE-LHC, et est certainement mesurable au FCC-hh. Dans le deuxième article, nous avons examiné comment générer la violation CP avec des neutrinos droitiers. Le deuxième article porte sur l’étude de la violation CP directe dans la désintégration W⁻→ l-1 l-2 (q′¯ q)⁺ en impliquant deux neutrinos N1 et N 2. Nous avons trouvé que la valeur de l’asymétrie CP peut être mesurée avec une précision de 3σ et que 0.1% ≤ ACP ≤ 10%. / This thesis is dedicated to the study of CP violation in these processes ūd→tb̄ e⁻ μ⁻ et W⁻→ l-1 l-2 (q′¯ q)⁺. There are experiments which search to identify these processes at the "Large Hadron Collider" (LHC). The outcome of the observation of these decays would imply violation of lepton number conservation, ∆L = 2. If the neutrino is a Majorana particle, it is its own antiparticle and we can observe processes that violate the conservation of the lepton number, ∆L = 2. The neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), is a process which is characterized by ∆L = 2, occurs when the neutrinos are Majorana particles. If we observe 0νββ-like processes at the LHC, there is also the possibility of looking for CP violation. Measuring this type of CP violation would give us information about New Physics that could not be easily obtained using other methods. There are three types of CP violation, namely: direct, indirect and kinematic (triple product). This research presents studies concerning direct and triple product CP violation. The first paper is devoted to triple products in the process: ūd→tb̄ e⁻ μ⁻. In addition, the model considered does not involve a Majorana neutrino. Using MadGraph, we have numerically studied and evaluated the CP violation for the two mentioned processes for three types of accelerators: high luminosity HL-LHC (14 TeV), high energy HE-LHC (27 TeV) and for a future FCC-hh collider (100 TeV). We found that the triple product is not measurable at the HL-LHC, may be measurable at HE-LHC, and is certainly measurable at FCC-hh. In the second article, we investigated to see how to generate CP violation with right-handed neutrinos. The second article is on the study of direct CP violation the decay W⁻→ l-1 l-2 (q′¯ q)⁺ by involving two neutrinos N1and N2. It is also observed that the value of CP asymmetry can be measured with an accuracy of 3σ and as 0.1% ≤ ACP ≤ 10%.

Neutrino telescopes such as IceCube monitor for low-energy neutrinos O(10 MeV) produced in nuclear processes during core-collapse in supernovae. The detection horizon to the neutrino burst is 50 kpc, the distance to the Magellanic Clouds. However, this limits the number of supernovae accessible through low-energy neutrino detection, as the Galactic rate is only <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?%5Csim" data-classname="equation" data-title="" />2 per century. Some models predict the production of high-energy O(&gt;GeV) neutrinos through acceleration mechanisms, such as the ejecta colliding with the circumstellar material or relativistic jets in the stellar envelope. This thesis examines how these high-energy neutrinos could be exploited with neutrino telescopes like IceCube to extend the detection horizon to core-collapse supernovae past the Magellanic clouds. To examine the detection horizon for IceCube, we use two data samples, one utilizing muon tracks which provide good sensitivity in the northern sky, and the other all flavor starting events, which provide good sensitivity in the southern sky. We demonstrate that extending the reach past 50 kpc and well into the 10s of Mpc is possible, where the expected rate is more than two core-collapse supernovae per year.

[pt] Atualmente podemos determinar com grande precisão os parâmetros das massas e misturas dos neutrinos. Porém, mesmo que no futuro as incertezas sobres as medidas destes parâmetros sejam reduzidas considerablemente, talvez algumas questões ainda continuem em aberto, como por exemplo, o valor absoluto da massa dos neutrinos, a hierarquia de massa e também determinar se os neutrinos são de Majorana ou Dirac, e se forem de Majorana, então quais seriam os valores das fases de CP? Nesta tese, nós abordamos parte destas questões estudando a detetabilidade da fase CP de Majorana através das medidas de massa dos neutrinos, que são extraídas de experimentos de decaimento beta, duplo decaimento beta sem neutrinos e observações cosmológicas. Para quantificar a sensibilidade dos experimentos à fase de Majorana, além de usar os gráficos convencionais das regiões permitidas, usamos a função de exclusão, definida como uma fração no espaço de parâmentros CP, que é excluída quando um conjunto de parâmetros de entrada é fornecido. A sensibilidade dos experimentos é considerada quando variamos as incertezas desde o valor mais pessimista até o valor mais optimista e também incluímos o erro experimental devido à matriz de elementos nucleares. Com esta análise, encontramos que a fase de Majorana, denotada como a21, pode ser restringida ao ser excluído o espaço de parâmentros entre um 10 por cento e até 50 por cento, com um nível de confiança de 3o, isto se consideramos que a massa do neutino mais leve é 0.1eV. Também são tratados aspectos característicos da sensibilidade à fase a21, como por exemplo, a dependência à outra fase de Majorana a31. Para finalizar, nós estudamos o caso de se na atualidade, a incerteza do elemento de matriz nuclear pode ser limitado usando as medidas dos mesmos experimentos. / [en] Nowdays we are in a precision epoch where is possible to get accurately the parameters that involve the neutrino physics, however, even that in the future the uncertainties on those parameters will decrease enormously, perhaps still will continue some open question, for instance, what is the absolute mass of neutrinos? What is the hierarchy of the masses? Are the neutrinos Majorana or Dirac? And if they were Majorana, what would be the value of the CP phases? In this work, we studying the detectability of the CP phase through experiments of neutrino beta decay, neutrinoless double beta decay and cosmology. In order to quantify the sensitivity to the Majorana phase we use the CP exlusion fraction, it is a fraction of region of the CP phase, that is excluded for a given set of assumed input parameters. The experiments sensitivity is account when it is varied since the pessimistic to optimistic one, assumptions of the experimental erros, the uncertainty of nuclear matrix elements and all the scenarios are considering with the Normal and Inverted hierarchies. We find that a Majorana phase, the called a21 can be constrained strongly by excluded 10 − 50 per cent of phase space at 3o CL for the lowest neutrino mass of 0.1 eV. The characteristic features of the sensitivity to a21, such as dependences on the other phase a31 are addressed. We also arise the question of whether the uncertainties of nuclear matrix elements could be constrined be consistancy of such measurements.

[pt] Neste trabalho de tese investigaremos um novo método para medir a fase leptóonica de violação CP, CP , com um set up experimental chamado LiquidO e, estudaremos a possibilidade do futuro experimento Hyper-Kamiokande de pôr um limite sobre o tempo de vida do neutrino. Ambos são experimentos que detectam neutrinos de acelerador que performarão as próprias medições através do estudo do bem conhecido fenómeno da oscilação de sabor de neutrinos. O primeiro experimento considerado possui duas novas características: primeiramente utiliza como fonte de neutrino um fluxo de Vμ e Vμ produzidos por pions (pi+) em repouso a uma distância de 16 km e secondariamente vai usar uma nova forma de detecção. Essa detecção é feita utilizando cintilador liquido opaco com fibras ópticas que permitem distinguir entre e+ e e-. Nós explicaremos as principais propriedades fenomenológicas desta configuração e calcularemos a significância estatística de exclusão da hipótese CP = (0, pi), a precisão de medição de CP com 1δ de confiança estatística e também as regões permitidas no espaço dos parámetros sin2 023 - δ CP . Na segunda parte do nosso trabalho, nos concentraremos no experimento Hyper-Kamiokande, versão melhorada do experimento Super-Kamiokande que se adjudicou o prémio Nobel em 2015. Este é um detector de luz Cherenkov que utiliza um fluxo de Vμ (Vμ) com energias < 10GeV produzido no acelerador JPARC e colocado a uma distância de 295 km. Neste trabalho identificaremos este experimento como T2HK enquanto para a sua estensão na Korea, que utilizará a mesma fonte mas será colocada a 1100 km de distância, utilizaremos a sigla T2HKK. Nós introduziremos brevemente as modalidades de decaimento do neutrino que podem ser classificadas em dois tipos: um é chamado decaimento invisível, ou seja, quando o neutrino de origem decai em um estado estéril mais uma partícula escalar, e o outro e chamdo de decaimento visível, ou seja, quando o neutrino de origem decai em um autoestado de massa ativo mais uma partícula escalar. Em fim calcularemos as sensitividades no limite da vida média do autoestado V3 para os casos de decaimento visível e invisível para as configurações de T2HK e T2HKK. / [en] In this thesis we will study a novel method to measure the leptonic CP violation phase, CP , in an experimental set up called LiquidO, and the possibility by the future experiment Hyper-Kamiokande to put a limit on the neutrino lifetime. Both experiment are accelerator based ones that will use the well established neutrino flavour oscillation phenomenon to perform their measurement. The first experimental set up uses two new features: firstly it uses as a source a flux of Vμ and Vμ coming from pions (pi+) decay at rest with a baseline of 16 km and secondly it uses a new detection method. This new detection is performed using opaque Liquid Scintillator (LS) with optical fibers that allows e+ e- identification. We will discuss the phenomenological main characteristics of this set up and we will calculate the expected significance to exclude the δ CP = (0, pi) hypothesis, the 1δ precision of the CP measurement and also the expected allowed regions in the sin2 023 - δ CP plane. For what it concerns the second part of our work, we will focus on the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment, upgrade of the 2015 Nobel prize awarded Super-Kamiokande. This is a water Cherenkov detector that will use a Vμ (Vμ) flux with a typical neutrino energy < 10 GeV coming from the JPARC facility with a baseline of 295 km. We will call this source-detector configuration T2HK to distinguish T2HKK, the possible extension of this experiment in Korea that will use the same beam but it will be located at 1100 km from the source. We will briefly introduce the neutrino decay mode that can be classified in two types: one is what is called invisible decay , i.e. when neutrino decays into a sterile neutrino state plus a scalar particle, and the other is called visible decay, i.e. when neutrino decays into an active mass eigenstate plus a scalar particle. We will calculate the limit on the V3 lifetime for the invisible and the visible case for both configurations T2HK and T2HKK.

<p>A search for a diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos with energies in excess of 10¹⁴ eV was performed using two years of AMANDA-II data, collected in 2003 and 2004. A 20% evenly distributed sub-sample of experimental data was used to verify the detector description and the analysis cuts. A very good agreement between this 20% sample and the background simulations was observed. The analysis was optimised for discovery, to a relatively low price in limit setting power. The background estimate for the livetime of the examined 80% sample is 0.035 ± 68% events with an additional 41% systematical uncertainty.</p><p>The total neutrino flux needed for a 5σ discovery to be made with 50% probability was estimated to 3.4 ∙ 10^-7 <i>E</i>^-2 GeV s^-1 sr^-1 cm^-2 equally distributed over the three flavours, taking statistical and systematic uncertainties in the background expectation and the signal efficiency into account. No experimental events survived the final discriminator cut. Hence, no ultra-high energy neutrino candidates were found in the examined sample. A 90% upper limit is placed on the total ultra-high energy neutrino flux at 2.8 ∙ 10^-7 <i>E</i>^-2 GeV s^-1 sr^-1cm^-2, taking both systematical and statistical uncertainties into account. The energy range in which 90% of the simulated <i>E</i>^-2signal is contained is 2.94 ∙ 10¹⁴ eV to 1.54 ∙ 10¹⁸eV (central interval), assuming an equal distribution over the neutrino flavours at the Earth. The final acceptance is distributed as 48% electron neutrinos, 27% muon neutrinos, and 25% tau neutrinos.</p><p>A set of models for the production of neutrinos in active galactic nuclei that predict spectra deviating from <i>E</i>^-2 was excluded.</p>

The International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is designed to demonstrate the currently untested technique of ionization cooling. Theoretically, this process can condition the high quality muon beams required to build a neutrino factory or muon collider which will be the next generation of machines for the study of Particle Physics. The beam line to transport muons into the MICE cooling channel lattice cell was installed in December 2009. Step I of the experimental programme, whose goal was to demonstrate that the beam line can generate beams similar to those expected in a neutrino factory cooling channel, was completed in August 2010. Methods were developed to use time difference measurements in the MICE time of flight counters (TOFs) to obtain a transverse spatial resolution of approximately 10 mm and to track muons through the focusing elements of the beam line, thus allowing the trace space vectors of individual muons to be reconstructed and their integrated path length to be calculated. The TOFs were used to make an absolute measurement of the momentum of muons with zero bias and a systematic error of less than 3 MeV/c. The measured trace space vectors of single muons were used to estimate the emittances and approximate optical parameters of eighteen muon beams. The results of beam line simulations were compared with the measurements and, once the effects of experimental resolution had had been included, found to be in good agreement. A sample of individual muons whose phase space vectors had been measured was injected into a simulation of the full MICE cooling channel; the beam was found to be suitable for demonstrating muon cooling, although some fine tuning of the cooling channel optics will eventually be required.

In dieser Dissertation werden Daten aus drei Jahren vom vollständig fertiggestellten IceCube-Detektor benutzt um nach Neutrinos zu suchen, die in Dunkle-Materie-Annihilationen in fünf nahegelegen Zwerggalaxien, der M31 Galaxie und dem Virgo Galaxienhaufen produziert wurden. Um die Messung durchzuführen, wurde zunächst eine Ereignis-Selektion angewandt, die es ermöglicht, die von aus der Atmosphäre stammenden Teilchen dominierte Rate der Ereignisse von zirka 100 Hz auf 0.5 mHz zu reduzieren. Danach wird eine Maximum-Likelihood-Schätzer eingesetzt um zu bestimmen ob es ein Überschuss von Neutrinos aus der Richtung der jeweiligen Quellen gibt, der mit einen Energie-Spektrum übereinstimmt das mann für Dunkle-Materie-Annihilationen erwartet. Für die M31 Galaxie und den Virgo Galaxienhaufen wurde zusätzlich zu dieser Suche nach einer Punktquelle auch eine Suche für ein erweitertes Signal durchgeführt. In allen untersuchten Fällen ist das Ergebnis der Analyse vereinbar mit einer Messung der Hintergrund-Hypothese, und daraus wurden Limits für den über die Geschwindigkeit gemittelten Wirkungsquerschnitt für Dunkle-Materie-Annihilation für verschiedene Endprodukte bestimmt. Für hohe Dunkle-Materie-Massen gibt es ein Überschuss von Neutrinos aus drei der Zwerggalaxien. Dieser Überschuss hat einen globalen p-Wert von 4.9% und ist damit nicht statistisch signifikant. Die Suche für ein erweitertes Signal von der M31 Galaxie und dem Virgo Galaxienhaufen ergab keinen Überschuss. Die Limits auf den über die Geschwindigkeit gemittelten Wirkungsquerschnitt für Dunkle-Materie-Annihilation haben sich im Vergleich zu vorherigen IceCube-Analysen signifikant verbessert, um bis zu einer Größenordnung. Diese ist teilweise auf Grund Verbesserungen für diese Analyse besonders: eine verbesserte Ereignis-Selektion, und für die Analyse ist eine Maximum-Likelihood-Schätzer eingesetzt statt eine Analyse in ein Suchfenster. / In this thesis, three years worth of data from the completed IceCube detector is used to search for neutrinos produced in dark matter annihilations in five nearby dwarf galaxies, the M31 galaxy and the Virgo cluster. To do this, an event selection which was developed for this analysis is applied to the data sample to reduce the atmospheric background rate from approximately 100 Hz to less than 0.5 mHz. Then, an unbinned maximum likelihood method is used to determine whether there is an excess of neutrinos from the direction of the considered galaxies or galaxy cluster that has an energy spectrum that matches the spectrum expected from dark matter annihilations. For the M31 galaxy and the Virgo cluster an extended signal with a two-dimensional Gaussian shape and width up to 5 degrees is also considered. In all cases, the results of the analysis are compatible with the background-only hypothesis and limits are set on the velocity-averaged dark matter annihilation cross section for different annihilation channels. For high dark matter masses there is an excess of neutrinos from three of the five dwarf galaxies. This excess has a global p-value of 4.9%, so it is not statistically significant. The search for an extended emission from the direction of the M31 galaxy and the Virgo cluster also did not result in an excess: in both cases the global p-value is larger than 50%. The limits on the velocity-averaged dark matter annihilation cross section have improved significantly (up to an order of magnitude) with respect to the previous IceCube analysis considering these same targets. This is partially due to improvements to this analysis specifically: an improved event selection was used to select the final data sample and an unbinned maximum likelihood method was used for the final analysis instead of a binned analysis method.

La série de détecteurs NEMO est conçue pour la recherche de la double désintégration β sans émission de neutrino qui prouverait que le neutrino est une particule de Majorana (i.e. identique à son antiparticule) et massif. Après avoir présenté l’état des lieux en physique des neutrinos et les détecteurs NEMO 3 et SuperNEMO, cette thèse s’articule en deux parties indépendantes. La première concerne l’étude du bruit de fond provenant des neutrons pour optimiser le blindage destiné au premier module de SuperNEMO. La conclusion de cette étude montre que l’ajout de plaques de polyéthylène boré par rapport au blindage de NEMO 3 (de part et d’autre du blindage en fer) permet d’obtenir un bruit de fond négligeable provenant des neutrons, dans la fenêtre en énergie du canal deux électrons où la double désintégration β sans émission de neutrino du sélénium-82 est attendue, en cinq ans de prise de données de ce premier module. La seconde partie, via l’analyse des données du détecteur NEMO 3, permet une indication de la désintégration double β standard du néodyme-150 vers l’état excité 0+1 du samarium-150. La feuille de néodyme qui est placée dans le détecteur est analysée en détail pour obtenir cette indication à 3, 7σ avec une demi-vie mesurée de : T1/2 (150 Nd0+ →0+1 ) = [7, 12 ± 1, 28 (stat.) ± 0, 91 (syst.)] × 10E19 ans / The NEMO detector series is designed to search for the neutrinoless double β decay, which would prove that the neutrino is a Majorana particle (i.e. identical to its own antiparticle) and has a nonzero mass. After an introduction to neutrino physics and a description of both the NEMO 3 and SuperNEMO detectors, this thesis is articulated in two independent parts.The first provides an investigation of the neutron background in order to optimize the shielding for the first SuperNEMO module. The outcome of the study recommends the addition of borated polyethylene to the NEMO 3 shielding (on both sides of the iron shielding) to obtain a negligible background, coming from neutrons in the energy window of the two-electron channel where the neutrinoless double β decay of selenium-82 is expected, for the duration of five years for which data will be taken with this first module. In the second part, the neodymium foil located in the NEMO 3 detector is deeply analyzed to obtain an indication of the standard double β decay of neodymium-150 to the 0+1 excited state of samarium-150. The measured half-life, with a significance of 3.7σ, is: T1/2 (150 Nd 0+ →0+1 ) = [7.12 ± 1.28 (stat.) ± 0.91 (syst.)] × 10E19 years