Professor Dr.rer.nat. Dipl.Phys. Alfons Weber FInstP, MA Ox

Abstract:

The CoGeNT Collaboration has recently published results from a fifteen month data set which indicate an annual modulation in the event rate similar to what is expected from weakly interacting massive particle interactions. It has been suggested that the CoGeNT modulation may actually be caused by other annually modulating phenomena, specifically the flux of atmospheric muons underground or the radon level in the laboratory. We have compared the phase of the CoGeNT data modulation to that of the concurrent atmospheric muon and radon data collected by the MINOS experiment which occupies an adjacent experimental hall in the Soudan Underground Laboratory. The results presented are obtained by performing a shape-free χ2 data-to-data comparison and from a simultaneous fit of the MINOS and CoGeNT data to phase-shifted sinusoidal functions. Both tests indicate that the phase of the CoGeNT modulation is inconsistent with the phases of the MINOS muon and radon modulations at the 3.0σ level. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

The T2K experiment is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment aiming to observe the appearance of νe in a νμ beam. The νμ beam is produced at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), observed with the 295 km distant Super-Kamiokande Detector and monitored by a suite of near detectors at 280 m from the proton target. The near detectors include a magnetized off-axis detector (ND280) which measures the unoscillated neutrino flux and neutrino cross-sections. The present paper describes the outermost component of ND280 which is a Side Muon Range Detector (SMRD) composed of scintillation counters with embedded wavelength shifting fibers and Multi-Pixel Photon Counter readout. The components, performance and response of the SMRD are presented. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Abstract:

The Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment studies neutrino oscillations using an off-axis muon neutrino beam with a peak energy of about 0.6 GeV that originates at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex accelerator facility. Interactions of the neutrinos are observed at near detectors placed at 280 m from the production target and at the far detector - Super-Kamiokande - located 295 km away. The flux prediction is an essential part of the successful prediction of neutrino interaction rates at the T2K detectors and is an important input to T2K neutrino oscillation and cross section measurements. A FLUKA and GEANT3-based simulation models the physical processes involved in the neutrino production, from the interaction of primary beam protons in the T2K target, to the decay of hadrons and muons that produce neutrinos. The simulation uses proton beam monitor measurements as inputs. The modeling of hadronic interactions is reweighted using thin target hadron production data, including recent charged pion and kaon measurements from the NA61/SHINE experiment. For the first T2K analyses the uncertainties on the flux prediction are evaluated to be below 15% near the flux peak. The uncertainty on the ratio of the flux predictions at the far and near detectors is less than 2% near the flux peak. © 2013 American Physical Society.