Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2008 Annual Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics
Volume 53, Number 12
Thursday–Sunday, October 23–26, 2008; Oakland, California
Session GC: Mini-Symposium: Neutrino Properties and Nuclear Physics IV |
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Chair: Hamish Robertson, University of Washington Room: Jewett Ballroom A-B |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 10:30AM - 10:42AM |
GC.00001: Sterile Neutrino Dark matter Chad Kishimoto, George Fuller We discuss medium-enhanced, neutrino scattering-induced production of dark matter candidate sterile neutrinos in the early universe. We compare a complete quantum kinetic equation treatment with the widely used quantum Zeno ansatz. We discuss the resultant sterile neutrino energy spectra and the role these may play in obtaining astrophysical constraints on these dark matter candidates. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 10:42AM - 10:54AM |
GC.00002: Heavy Sterile Neutrinos, Primordial Nucleosynthesis, and the Evolution of the Early Universe Christel Smith, George Fuller, Chad Kishimoto, Alexander Kusenko, Kalliopi Petraki We examine the effect on the evolution of the early universe and on the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) process of massive sterile neutrinos (rest masses $<1\,{\rm MeV}$) which mix in vacuum with ordinary active neutrinos. We find that light element BBN considerations can provide probes of this sector of neutrino physics which are complementary to or even extend those based on laboratory measurements. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 10:54AM - 11:06AM |
GC.00003: Search for Sterile Neutrinos at the SNS: OscSNS William Louis The SNS is coming online over the next few years and will be a prodigious source of neutrinos from $\pi^+$ and $\mu^+$ decay at rest, which can be used for high-precision neutrino oscillation experiments. The neutrino flux from the SNS is known extremely well and includes $\bar \nu_\mu$ and $\nu_e$ from $\mu^+$ decay at rest, as well as the 30 MeV monoenergetic $\nu_\mu$ from $\pi^+$ decay at rest that can be used to search for the existence of sterile neutrinos via the neutral-current reaction $\nu_\mu C \rightarrow \nu_\mu C^*(15.11)$. An oscillation or suppression of this reaction would be direct evidence for sterile neutrinos. The OscSNS detector is based on the LSND and MiniBooNE detectors and can achieve the world's best neutrino oscillation sensitivities for $\bar \nu_\mu \rightarrow \bar \nu_e$ oscillations, $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_e$ oscillations, and $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_x$ oscillations at a $\Delta m^2$ scale of $\sim 0.1 - 1$ eV$^2$. In addition, OscSNS can make precision measurements of $\nu_\mu e \rightarrow \nu_\mu e$ elastic scattering, $\nu_e e \rightarrow \nu_e e$ elastic scattering, and $\nu_e C \rightarrow e^- N$ charged-current scattering. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:06AM - 11:18AM |
GC.00004: Measuring Atmospheric Neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Thomas Walker While the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory was designed to detect low energy solar neutrinos, it can also track high energy muons from cosmic ray showers and atmospheric neutrino interactions. Because of SNO's great depth and flat overburden, the cosmic ray muon flux is negligible unless the muons are traveling at a relatively steep angle (zenith angle less than 66 degrees). This means that neutrino-induced muons can be observed both above and below the horizon. The neutrinos from below the horizon will have undergone oscillations, while the neutrinos from above will not. This unique sample of unoscillated neutrinos will allow SNO to constrain the flux of high energy atmospheric neutrinos in addition to extracting oscillation parameters. This talk will describe SNO's measurements of the atmospheric muon neutrino flux, oscillation parameters, and the flux of cosmic ray muons at a depth of 6000 meters water equivalent using the entire SNO dataset. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:18AM - 11:30AM |
GC.00005: Neutrino Interactions in MiniBooNE Chris Polly The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab has amassed an unprecedented number of neutrino and antineutrino interactions in the 1 GeV $E_{\nu}$ range. Ongoing analyses in both charged and neutral-current sectors continue to make progress, particularly in understanding (quasi)elastic and single pion production channels. In addition to 6.5E20 protons on target (POT) acquired with a neutrino beam, MiniBooNE has now also collected 3e20 POT in antineutrino mode. An overview of cross-sections in MiniBooNE with an emphasis on more recent results will be given. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:30AM - 11:42AM |
GC.00006: Improved Description of Charged Current Pion Production in the MiniBooNE Detector Jaroslaw Nowak The MiniBooNE experiment has collected an enormous sample of about 46k events of positive pions production via the charged current (CCPiP). The purity of the CCPiP sample is at a level of 87\% and it the purest sample observed in the MiniBooNE detector. The average neutrino energy in the MiniBooNE beam is about 700 MeV, which give us an opportunity of doing detail study of the resonant and coherent pion production. A long-standing problem of a discrepancy of the CCPiP production as a function of the four-momentum transfer and scattering angle between Monte Carlo prediction and observed events will be discussed. The attempts to address this problem will be presented. The Rein-Sehgal model of the resonant and coherent production has been extended to include the muon mass in the final state. Also a new form of the vector and axial vector form factor were used. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:42AM - 11:54AM |
GC.00007: Status of the MiniBooNE Anti-neutrino Oscillation Analysis Zarko Pavlovic The MiniBooNE experiment was designed to test the results from the LSND experiment which saw evidence for $\bar{\nu}_\mu \rightarrow \bar{\nu}_e$ oscillations at $\Delta m^2 \sim 1~eV^2$. The LSND signal cannot be reconciled with neutrino oscillations observed with solar and atmospheric neutrinos within the framework of three Standard Model neutrinos. Previously MiniBooNE looked for the appearance of electron neutrinos in a $\nu_\mu$ beam but saw no evidence for oscillations. Currently MiniBooNE is taking data using the $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ beam. This talk presents the status of the oscillation analysis using anti-neutrino data. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:54AM - 12:06PM |
GC.00008: Pion LINAC as an Energy-Tagged Neutrino Source Terry Goldman, Richard Silbar The energy spectrum and flux of neutrinos from a linear pion accelerator are calculated analytically under the assumption of a uniform accelerating gradient. The energy of a neutrino from this source reacting in a detector can be determined from timing and event position information. [Preview Abstract] |
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