Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2013; Denver, Colorado
Session H11: Neutrino Oscillation Studies |
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Sponsoring Units: DPF DNP Chair: Bob McKeown, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Room: Governor's Square 17 |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
H11.00001: Reconstruction Algorithms for Electon Neutrino Appearance in NOvA Evan Niner The NuMI Off-Axis $\nu_{e}$ Appearance (NOvA) experiment is a long-baseline neutrino experiment. The project uses two functionally identical detectors placed 14 milliradians off-axis from the NuMI beamline at Fermilab and located 810km apart to study a number of parameters. Among the scientific goals are measurements of $\sin^{2}2\theta_{23}$, $\sin^{2}2\theta_{13}$, $\delta$ and the mass hierarchy. The detectors are a grid of plastic cells filled with liquid scintillator to provide 3D tracking and calorimetry. This new detector technology requires different techniques for track reconstruction. A new algorithm suitable for track and shower reconstruction being used in the electron-neutrino appearance analysis will be presented. This method works by first identifying the event vertex using a Hough transform in combination with an elastic arms vertex fit. A fuzzy-k means clustering is then applied to identify the features associated with the vertex. Performance of an artificial neutral net based particle identification for selecting electron neutrino charged current events using this reconstruction as an input will also be shown. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
H11.00002: Status of the NOvA Experiment Satish Desai The NOvA experiment will study neutrino oscillations using a beam of neutrinos produced at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. The experiment is currently under construction and will consist of a near detector, located at Fermilab and a far detector, located 810 km away in Ash River, Minnesota, both 14 mrad off of the beam axis. The fully active liquid scintillator detectors are designed to identify the interaction of neutrinos from the beam. With the recent discovery of a non-zero $\theta_{13}$ at reactor-based neutrino experiments, NOvA will be well suited to study the ordering of the neutrino mass eigenstates and to search for CP violating effects in the neutrino sector. I will discuss the goals of the the NOvA experiment and present the current status of the detector construction and commissioning. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
H11.00003: Expected sensitivity of the NOvA muon neutrino disappearance analysis Kirk Bays NOvA is an 810 km long baseline neutrino experiment utilizing the NuMI beam aimed towards a 14 kton liquid scintillator far detector that is currently being constructed. NOvA is designed to study both electron neutrino appearance (allowing a precision measurement of $\theta_{13}$ and possible determination of the mass hierarchy and any CP violation) and muon neutrino disappearance (giving a precision measurement of $\theta_{23}$ and the atmospheric mass squared difference). Presented here is the expected sensitivity reach of the NOvA muon neutrino disappearance analysis, showing that NOvA can significantly improve the world's current best knowledge of both $\theta_{23}$ and $|\Delta m^2_{atm}|$. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
H11.00004: Sensitivity of the NOvA $\nu_e$ appearance analysis Christoper Backhouse We know that much larger flavor mixing occurs in the neutrino sector than between quarks. Some of the remaining outstanding questions in neutrino physics concern how deep this difference goes. Does the electron neutrino mix strongly with the heaviest states? Is the third mass state more $\nu_\mu$ or $\nu_\tau$, or exactly equal? Quark mixing violates CP-symmetry. Do neutrinos do the same, and if so how much? The presence of nonzero CP-violation could help explain the matter/antimatter asymmetry of our universe, through the mechanism of leptogenesis. With its long baseline, and ability to run both neutrino and antineutrino beams, the NOvA experiment is best-placed of the current generation of experiments to address these questions. I describe the NOvA $\nu_\mu\leftrightarrow\nu_e$ oscillation analysis and show sensitivities to determine the mass hierarchy, measure the $\theta_{23}$ octant, and the CP-violating parameter $\delta$. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
H11.00005: Muon - Charged Current Neutrino Event Selection From The NOvA Prototype Detector's Data Enrique Arrieta Diaz NOvA is a long - base neutrino experiment that will measure both electron neutrino appearance and muon neutrino disappearance. The collaboration built a Near Detector On the Surface, NDOS, to be used as prototype to test the different components of the experiment currently under construction. NDOS is at Fermilab at 110 mrad from the NuMI beam axis, and it collected neutrino and antineutrino data as part of its duties. The neutrino data is under analysis, and the aim is to use it to measure the inclusive charged current cross section of muon neutrinos, with energies larger than 1.5 GeV, coming from the decay of kaons from the NuMI beam. The present work shows the event selection criteria used to separate muon signal events from neutral current background. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
H11.00006: Measuring $\theta_{23}$ with IceCube DeepCore Laura Gladstone The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station includes the DeepCore infill array which could extend visible energies as low as the 10 GeV region. This allows for investigation of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters by observing the zenith direction and energy of neutrino-induced charged leptons. With $O(10^4)$ neutrino events observed within the first year, the status of this ongoing high-statistics measurement will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
H11.00007: Measurement of muon neutrino oscillations using the complete MINOS data set Michelle Mesquita de Medeiros The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) experiment at Fermilab uses a long-baseline neutrino beam in order to study neutrino oscillations. The near detector is placed 1 km from the target while the far detector is situated 735 km away from the target. Both detectors are magnetized allowing the charge determination of the particle being detected. MINOS has now finished the low-energy phase of data taking and has produced some of the most precise measurements of neutrino oscillations. We present the results of the complete MINOS data set, where the muon neutrino and anti-neutrino from the NuMI beam are combined with the atmospheric data taken by the far detector. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
H11.00008: ABSTRACT WITHDRAWN |
Sunday, April 14, 2013 12:21PM - 12:33PM |
H11.00009: Measuring $\theta_{13}$ in the Double Chooz experiment Keith Crum Double Chooz measures $\theta_{13}$ by searching for the disappearance of reactor electron antineutrinos ($\overline{\nu}_e$) interacting via inverse beta decay (IBD) in a liquid scintillator-based detector. The signature of IBD is the coincidence of positron annihilation followed by the capture of a neutron. Although Double Chooz was primarily designed to detect $\overline{\nu}_e$ by searching for neutron capture on gadolinium, we can also search for neutron capture on hydrogen. We developed separate analyses for neutron capture on hydrogen and gadolinium as the two elements have different capture energies, capture lifetimes, and spatial distributions within our detector. [Preview Abstract] |
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