Dr William Parker

Abstract:

All rights reserved. Neutrino neutral-current (NC) induced single photon production is a subleading order process for accelerator-based neutrino beam experiments including T2K. It is, however, an important process to understand because it is a background for electron (anti)neutrino appearance oscillation experiments. Here, we performed the first search of this process below 1 GeV using the finegrained detector at the T2K ND280 off-axis near detector. By reconstructing single photon kinematics from electron positron pairs, we achieved 95% pure gamma ray sample from 5.738 1020 protons-on-targets neutrino mode data. We do not find positive evidence of NC induced single photon production in this sample. We set the model-dependent upper limit on the cross-section for this process, at 0.114 10-38 cm2 (90% C.L.) per nucleon, using the J-PARC off-axis neutrino beam with an average energy of .En. ~ 0.6 GeV. This is the first limit on this process below 1.GeV which is important for current and future oscillation experiments looking for electron neutrino appearance oscillation signals.

Abstract:

We perform a search for light sterile neutrinos using the data from the T2K far detector at a baseline of 295 km, with an exposure of 14.7(7.6)×10^20 protons on target in neutrino (antineutrino) mode. A selection of neutral-current interaction samples is also used to enhance the sensitivity to sterile mixing. No evidence of sterile neutrino mixing in the 3+1 model was found from a simultaneous fit to the charged-current muon, electron and neutral-current neutrino samples. We set the most stringent limit on the sterile oscillation amplitude sin^2θ24 for the sterile neutrino mass splitting Δm^2v41<3×10^−3eV^2/c^4.

Abstract:

In this document, we present the Technical Design Report of the Upgrade of the T2K Near Detector ND280. The goal of this upgrade is to improve the Near Detector performance to measure the neutrino interaction rate and to constrain the neutrino interaction cross-sections so that the uncertainty in the number of predicted events at Super-Kamiokande is reduced to about 4%. This will allow to improve the physics reach of the T2K-II project. This goal is achieved by modifying the upstream part of the detector, adding a new highly granular scintillator detector (Super-FGD), two new TPCs (High-Angle TPC) and six TOF planes. Details about the detector concepts, design and construction methods are presented, as well as a first look at the test-beam data taken in Summer 2018. An update of the physics studies is also presented.

Abstract:

Hyper-Kamiokande consists of two identical water-Cherenkov detectors of total 520~kt with the first one in Japan at 295~km from the J-PARC neutrino beam with 2.5$^{\textrm{o}}$ Off-Axis Angles (OAAs), and the second one possibly in Korea in a later stage. Having the second detector in Korea would benefit almost all areas of neutrino oscillation physics mainly due to longer baselines. There are several candidate sites in Korea with baselines of 1,000$\sim$1,300~km and OAAs of 1$^{\textrm{o}}$$\sim$3$^{\textrm{o}}$. We conducted sensitivity studies on neutrino oscillation physics for a second detector, either in Japan (JD $\times$ 2) or Korea (JD + KD) and compared the results with a single detector in Japan. Leptonic CP violation sensitivity is improved especially when the CP is non-maximally violated. The larger matter effect at Korean candidate sites significantly enhances sensitivities to non-standard interactions of neutrinos and mass ordering determination. Current studies indicate the best sensitivity is obtained at Mt. Bisul (1,088~km baseline, $1.3^\circ$ OAA). Thanks to a larger (1,000~m) overburden than the first detector site, clear improvements to sensitivities for solar and supernova relic neutrino searches are expected.