Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2011
Volume 56, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 30–May 3 2011; Anaheim, California
Session C9: New Techniques in Neutrino Detection |
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Sponsoring Units: DPF Chair: Kate Scholberg, Duke University Room: Grand G |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 1:30PM - 1:42PM |
C9.00001: An optimized signal selection for a $\theta_{13}$ search in the MINOS experiment Ruth Toner MINOS is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment situated along Fermilab's high-intensity NuMI neutrino beam. MINOS is capable of conducting a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino transitions. Observation of this signal would indicate a nonzero value for the neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{13}$. A new analysis will incorporate several improvements to the selection of electron neutrino events in the detector. In particular, the talk will discuss a novel pattern recognition technique for signal selection and the subsequent gains in sensitivity for a measurement of $\theta_{13}$. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 1:42PM - 1:54PM |
C9.00002: Far Detector Background Prediction Technique for a $\theta_{13}$ search in the MINOS experiment Sarah Phan-Budd The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, or MINOS, is a long-baseline experiment which uses neutrinos created with the Fermilab NuMI beamline to search for neutrino oscillations. The MINOS experiment is conducting a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino transitions. An observation of such transitions would indicate a non-zero value for the neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{13}$. This talk will focus on the technique used to create the far detector background prediction based on the near detector data and the systematic errors associated with this technique. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 1:54PM - 2:06PM |
C9.00003: Electromagnetic Shower Identification in NO$\nu$A Alena Gavrilenko The NuMI Off-Axis $\nu_{e}$-Appearance project (NO$\nu$A) is a second generation neutrino oscillation experiment consisting of two liquid scintillator detectors positioned 810 km apart and 14 mrad off-axis in the NuMI muon neutrino beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. NO$\nu$A is optimized for the detection of the oscillations $\nu_{\mu} \rightarrow \nu_{e}$ and $\bar{\nu_{\mu}} \rightarrow \bar{\nu_{e}}$. The current limits on the $\nu_{e}$-appearance probability are constrained by MINOS as $2\sin^{2}(2\theta_{13}) \sin^{2}\theta_{23}$ $<$ 0.12 (0.20) for the normal (inverted) mass hierarchy at the 90$\%$ C.L. No limits have been placed on the neutrino CP-violating phase, $\delta_{CP}$. To observe the desired oscillations, a particle identification algorithm will be developed to distinguish electrons in the final state of neutrino interactions. A method for selecting $\nu_{e}$ charged-current events utilizing a neural network of variables characterizing electromagnetic showers is presented here. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
C9.00004: Modeling Hadronic Showers in MINERvA Juan Pablo Velasquez The MINER$\nu$A Test Beam (TB) detector took data in a low energy test beam at Fermilab with particle energies from 400 MeV to 1.2 GeV. These data will be used to calibrate the MINER$\nu$A neutrino detector. One of the goals of this work is to characterize the length and radius of the hadronic showers produced in the TB data, important for the MINER$\nu$A DIS studies. Within the same study, we will perform a comparison of these hadronic showers with the different hadronic models available in GEANT4. The status of this study will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
C9.00005: Light Collection in MicroBooNE Arati Prakash We describe the use of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for light collection in MicroBooNE, an experiment which will use a 170-ton liquid argon time projection chamber to measure low energy neutrino cross sections and investigate the low energy excess events observed by MiniBooNE. In the MicroBooNE electric field of 500V/cm, a MIP particle creates approximately 24,000 isotropic scintillation photons per MeV. We use 30 8-inch cryogenic PMTs mounted along the side wall of the detector chamber. The light is emitted in the vacuum UV region at 128nm and must be shifted in order to be detected by the PMTs. We use Tetraphenyl Butadeine (TPB)-coated plates mounted directly above the PMT surface. The simulation effort of whole system is ongoing and utilizes the LArSoft software being developed at FermiLab. The implementation of the PMT system discussed here provides not only coincidence signal for event reconstruction for MicroBooNE, but also valuable information for future liquid argon detectors. In this talk we report the results of research and development on the cryogenic PMTs, TPB-coated plates, and simulations comprising the light collection system in MicroBooNE. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
C9.00006: A Study of a Radon Gas Scrubber Xiaoyi Yang, Andrew Schmitz, Vincente Guiseppe, Dongming Mei Radon gas and its progeny are critical source of background for low background experimental devices. The required reduction of radon levels in air of the experimental area can typically be achieved with a radon scrubbing system. Various designs and techniques are commonly adopted in building a radon scrubber. For testing purpose, a single column system has been built at USD to study the radon-adsorption properties of activated charcoal. In this paper, we will demonstrate the working principle and test results. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
C9.00007: T2K Outer Detector Events Taritree Wongjirad In the long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, T2K, the Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) detector is used to detect neutrino interactions from a beam originating 295 km away. Super-K is a 50 kTon water Cerenkov detector originally built to observe proton decay, and to study atmospheric, solar and supernova neutrinos. As a result, it is divided into two segments: a cylindrical inner volume, termed the Inner Detector (ID), nested inside another cylindrical outer volume, termed the Outer Detector (OD). Typically, the OD's role in physics studies at Super-K is to act as a cosmic ray veto for the ID. However, in the T2K experiment neutrino interactions originating from the beam occur within a small, well-known time window. Accepting only coincident events with the beam into the T2K data sample provides a large enough suppression to the background rate that events containing light in the OD can still be considered as coming from neutrino interactions. From volume considerations alone, including such OD events provides an additional number of events comparable to the number of events expected in the ID. In this talk, I will describe the techniques used to separate neutrino events in the OD from the relatively small amount of backgrounds and present the results of these techniques from the first phase of data taking. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
C9.00008: High Energy Calibrations of Super-Kamiokande Joshua Hignight Super-Kamiokande is a Large Water Cherenkov Detector Located on the west coast of the main island of Japan. Its primary purpose is to look for nucleon decay, study atmospheric and solar neutrinos, as well as act as the far detector for a Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment, T2K. As with any experiment, an exact energy calibration of the detector is needed. At Super-Kamiokande there are three primary methods involved in this calibration for the energy range above the solar neutrino energies, namely above about 20 MeV, and each of these methods covers different energy regions. These methods include using high and low energy stopping muons, looking at the $\pi^0$ invariant mass peak, and studying the Michel- electron spectrum. In this talk we will discuss in some detail the exact methods used, the energy ranges covered, and some of the final results. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 3:06PM - 3:18PM |
C9.00009: The ND280 Near Detectors of the T2K Experiment William Coleman The Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment is designed to improve the sensitivity to $\theta _{13}$ and to determine more accurately the ``atmospheric'' parameters $\theta _{23}$ and$\Delta $m$_{23}^{2}$. For this purpose a high intensity v$_{\mu }$ beam ($\sim $700 MeV peak energy) produced at the JPARC accelerator complex is directed towards the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector at a distance of 295 km. An off-axis near detector (ND280), 280 m from the production target, measures the energy spectrum, flavor content and neutral and charged current interaction rates of the unoscillated neutrino beam which are key sources of systematic uncertainty. Here I discuss the status of the ND280 near detectors and how they contribute to our ability to understand and constrain these systematic uncertainties. [Preview Abstract] |
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