Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, February 13–16, 2010; Washington, DC
Session Q12: Neutrino Physics C |
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Sponsoring Units: DPF Chair: Karsten Heeger, University of Wisconsin Room: Virginia A |
Monday, February 15, 2010 1:30PM - 1:42PM |
Q12.00001: $\nu _e $ from K$^{+}$ Decay in SciBooNE Gary Cheng The MiniBooNE experiment reported no evidence of the $\nu _\mu $ to $\nu _e $ oscillation detected in the LSND experiment. A source of uncertainty in the MiniBooNE result is the calculated K$^{+}$ flux normalization used to determine the incident neutrino beam. SciBooNE, a finely segmented neutrino detector designed to measure neutrino cross-sections, was placed in the same neutrino beam upstream of MiniBooNE. It is possible to use high energy $\nu _e $ events detected in SciBooNE to place a constraint on the K$^{+}$ flux normalization in the neutrino beam. A study of the high energy $\nu _e $ events in SciBooNE will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 1:42PM - 1:54PM |
Q12.00002: Anti-fiducial Muons in MINOS Matthew Strait The primary physics goal of the MINOS experiment is to measure the neutrino mixing parameters $\mathrm{\Delta m^{2}_{23}}$ and $\mathrm{\sin^{2}2\theta_{23}}$. MINOS currently has the world's most precise measurement of $\mathrm{\Delta m^{2}_{23}}$. The primary MINOS analysis determines these parameters using charged current beam neutrino interactions in the fiducial volume of the far detector. However, half of the beam events observed in MINOS occur in the non-fiducial region of the detector and in the surrounding rock. These events can be used to provide an independent and complementary measurement. Challenges facing this analysis include separating rock events from detector events, correctly modeling the surrounding rock and exterior of the MINOS detector, quantifying the increased systematic error from cross section uncertainties and beam modeling, and extracting the maximum information from these events, many of which include only a single muon. Preliminary results of this analysis and a combined fit which demonstrates the improvement in sensitivity will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 1:54PM - 2:06PM |
Q12.00003: Selecting Electron Neutrino Events in the MINOS Detectors Mhair Orchanian The MINOS Collaboration recently completed a search for $\nu_e$ appearance in the NuMI beam at Fermilab. Since obtaining the first result, we have worked on improving the particle identification algorithms that distinguish $\nu_e$ charged current events from various background events. These include ANN (Artificial Neural Network) and LEM (Library Event Matching). ANN is a neural network that uses a set of reconstructed quantities that characterize the longitudinal and transverse energy deposition profiles of a given event. LEM is a pattern-recognition algorithm that compares the hit pattern of a given event to the hit patterns of many simulated ``library'' events; it then constructs discriminant variables from those library events that best match that event. The development of particle identification algorithms of such fundamentally different natures allows us to make a cross-check of our results. Event topologies in the detectors are discussed, and the effectiveness of these algorithms in selecting electron neutrino events is examined. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
Q12.00004: Muon Removal Techniques in the MINOS $\theta_{13}$ Analysis Xiaobo Huang MINOS, a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using the NuMI $\nu_{\mu}$ beam, might be able to access the last unknown neutrino oscillation angle ($\theta_{13}$) by searching for $\nu_{e}$ appearance in the far detector. The dominant background component to this search comes from the neutral current (NC) neutrino interactions. By removing the energy deposited by the muons from the $\nu_{\mu}$ charged current neutrino interaction events we are able to probe the hadronic shower modeling for the NC background. In addition, the efficiency of the signal selection is estimated by studying an artifical $\nu_{e}$ interaction data sample in which the energy deposited by the muons in the $\nu_{\mu}$ charged current neutrino interaction events are replaced by energy deposited by simulated electrons having the same momentum. The background estimation and the signal selection efficiency for the MINOS $\theta_{13}$ analysis obtained using the muon removal techniques will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
Q12.00005: Measurement of the relative neutrino flux using low-nu method Jiajie Ling, Azizur Rahaman, Sanjib Mishra MINOS is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment employing the NuMI neutrino beam. We present an analysis of the NuMI neutrino flux using the low-nu (low hadronic energy) events in the MINOS Near Detector. The analysis provides an empirical parameterization of tuning the simulation of production spectra of secondary hadrons produced in the 120 GeV proton-NuMI target collisions by fitting the spectra of muon neutrino and antineutrino charged-current events at low-nu. The principal goal of this empirical parameterization analysis is to provide an accurate neutrino flux measurement for the oscillation studies. Preliminary results will be shown and they will be compared with other flux methods used by MINOS. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
Q12.00006: Calibration of the MINERvA detector with light injection and cosmic ray muons Clifford Simon Light produced in MINERvA scintillator strips is observed with multi-anode photomultipliers and digitized using custom front-end electronics boards designed around the Fermilab TRIP chip. I will describe the methods used to calibrate the electronics and the photomultiplier tubes and comment on the performance. I will also discuss the method that we use to calibrate the relative light output of the scintillator strips and compare the calibration constants to measurements made with a radioactive source scanner. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
Q12.00007: Absolute Calibration of the MINER$\nu$A Detector Emily Maher The MINER$\nu$A detector consists of a compact, fine-grained, fully-active scintillator chamber designed to measure exclusive final states in neutrino scattering. This tracking chamber is surrounded by calorimeters. The energy calibration of the detector is critical for our measurements. This talk will describe several calibration techniques, including attenuation along the scintillator strips, light to energy calibration using muon tracks, the use of testbeam data, and the prospects for absolute calibration via $\pi^0$ decays, Michel electrons, and other ``standard candles.'' [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
Q12.00008: Simulating GeV particles in a very large liquid scintillator detector Jarek Kaspar Large liquid scintillation detectors could be an alternative to water Cherenkov and liquid Argon detectors for high energy neutrino measurements, in the GeV energy range, suitable for both cosmic ray studies and a long baseline neutrino experiment. In this talk, I will demonstrate the ability to distinguish the lepton flavor, discuss sensitivity to pions, protons and neutrons, and show a simple track finder. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 3:06PM - 3:18PM |
Q12.00009: Light Modeling and Detection in LArTPCs Benjamin Jones This talk describes modelling and detection of light from neutrino beam interactions in argon. Cerenkov and scintillation light is produced.~~ The wavelength of scintillation light is 128 nm and so it must be shifted in order to be detected.~~ We describe methods which will be used in MicroBooNE and other experiments. [Preview Abstract] |
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