Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 5
Saturday–Tuesday, April 5–8, 2014; Savannah, Georgia
Session J7: Neutrino Physics |
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Chair: Joshua Albert, Indiana University Room: 201 |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
J7.00001: The MicroBooNE Experiment Ryan Grosso The MicroBooNE Experiment is a 170-ton Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) that will commence taking data in the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab in 2014.The TPC active volume forms a rectangular solid of dimensions 2.3 m $\times$ 2.6 m $\times$ 10.4 m (87-ton) to record ionization signals from particles produced in neutrino interactions. Scintillation light detected by a Photomultiplier Tube array will be used to provide precise event timing information. This talk outlines the physics goals of the experiment along with the fabrication, assembly, and commissioning of the MicroBooNE LArTPC. Finally, the present status of the experiment will be summarized. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
J7.00002: EXO-200 Detector Performance and Results Sereres Johnston Experimental searches for neutrinoless double-beta ($\beta\beta0\nu$) decay are motivated by the access this process gives to the absolute neutrino mass scale. This process is also sensitive to beyond standard model physics such as any Majorana nature to neutrinos and lepton number non-conservation. The 200kg Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO-200) is an experimental program searching for $\beta\beta0\nu$ decay in a time projection chamber filled with over 100 kg of liquid Xenon enriched to $80\%$ $^{136}$Xe. The two neutrino decay mode ($\beta\beta2\nu$) has been found and a precision measurement made of the $2.165 \pm .016(stat) \pm .059(sys) \times 10^{21}$ year half life. The collection of both light and charge signals and the reconstruction of event positions for both single and multi-cluster events allow background discrimination on top of the already low background regime and the possibility of studying events with extended topologies. This talk will discuss the detector performance and recent results of the EXO-200 experiment. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
J7.00003: Simulation-based Validation of Pulse Shape Discrimination for the \textsc{Majorana Demonstrator} Benjamin Shanks The \textsc{Majorana Demonstrator}, currently under construction at Sanford Underground Research Facility, will search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) in $^{76}$Ge. Given the extremely long half-life of this decay, the experiment aims to reduce background to $<3$ counts/tonne-year in the 4-keV-wide region of interest. Because of the unique characteristics of the p-type point contact (PPC) detectors used in the \textsc{Demonstator}, pulse shape analysis (PSA) can be used to discriminate candidate $0\nu\beta\beta$ signal events from background gamma rays. A simulation framework has been written to validate the PSA algorithms. Described here are results of validation studies, comparing PSA results on simulated and experimental data. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
J7.00004: The {\sc Majorana} low background low noise front-end electronics Nicolas Abgrall The {\sc Majorana Demonstrator} will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay ($\beta\beta$(0$\nu$)) of $^{76}$Ge with a mixed array of enriched and natural germanium detectors. In view of the next generation of tonne-scale germanium-based $\beta\beta$(0$\nu$)-decay searches that will probe the neutrino mass scale in the inverted-hierarchy region, a major goal of the experiment is to demonstrate a path forward to achieving a background rate at or below 1 cnt/(ROI-t-y) in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the 2039-keV Q-value of the $^{76}$Ge $\beta\beta$(0$\nu$)-decay. Such a requirement on the background level in conjunction with the best possible energy resolution to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in the ROI significantly constrain the readout electronics. We present here the low background low noise front-end electronics developed for the low-capacitance P-type point-contact (PPC) germanium detectors of the {\sc Majorana Demonstrator}. This resistive-feedback front-end, specifically designed to have low mass, is fabricated on a radioactivity-assayed fused silica substrate where the feedback resistor consists of a sputtered thin film of high purity amorphous germanium and the feedback capacitor is based on the stray capacitance between circuit Au traces. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
J7.00005: Improving the estimation of reactor antineutrino spectra Marek Kos, David Asner, Kimberly Burns, Bryce Greenfield, Malachi Schram, John Orrell, Lynn Wood, Brent VanDevender, David Wootan The flux of antineutrinos emanating from reactors has been used for a range of experiments studying neutrino properties. Results from these experiments are in tension with models that have mixing only among the three active neutrino flavors of the Standard Model. Knowledge of reactor antineutrino flux is based on inversion of total reactor beta spectra measured at the Institut Laue Langevin in the 1980s. Recent reanalysis of that data has resulted in a signficant 3{\%} upward shift in the antineutrino flux with implications for the possible existence of sterile neutrinos. We explore the possibility that the present situation could be improved with a new measurement of the underlying reactor beta spectrum. Possibilities are considered to improve knowledge of the beta source by using actinide foils activated in a neutron beam tailored to the energy spectrum found in a reactor core, and magnetic beta spectroscopy with tracking to suppress backgrounds and control systematics. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
J7.00006: Spectral Function Implementation in Neutrino Event Generator and Its Impact on Neutrino Oscillation Parameters Chun-Min Jen The spectral function excels the Fermi Gas model in stating the lepton-nucleon interaction. In the first part of my talk, I will introduce the physics concept of the spectral function and related validation work using electron data collected over a broad range of kinematics conditions. The measured cross-sections, through conducting quasi-elastic electron scattering experiments, are determined by a set of well-controlled beam energies and scattering angles, and thus more reliable. We found the spectral function can better predicts the cross-section than the Fermi Gas model. As a result, the associated systematic uncertainty with the computed cross-section is greatly suppressed. In the second part of my talk, I will briefly describe what is the impact of using different nuclear models on the determination of neutrino oscillation parameters. An analysis is performed using GLoBES and shows that a 10\% shift in $\Delta m^{2}$ is expected for a long-baseline experiment setup because of different nuclear models. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
J7.00007: Analysis of the nuclear dependence of the $\nu_{\mu}$ charged current inclusive cross section with MINERvA Ronald Ransome Neutrino experiments use heavy nuclei (Fe, Pb, C) to achieve necessary statistics. However, the use of heavy nuclei exposes these experiments to the nuclear dependence of neutrino-nucleus cross sections, which are poorly known and difficult to model. The MINERvA (Main INjector ExpeRiment for $\nu$-A), a few-GeV neutrino nucleus scattering experiment at Fermilab, seeks to remedy the situation by directly studying the A-dependence of exclusive and inclusive channels. The MINERvA detector contains an 8 ton fully active fine-grained scintillator tracking core and targets of carbon, iron, lead, water and liquid helium which sit upstream of the tracking core. We present results from our analysis using the nuclear targets: ratios of the $\nu_{\mu}$ charged-current inclusive cross section in carbon, iron, lead and plastic scintillator (CH). [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
J7.00008: Improved measurement of $\nu_{\mu}$-induced charged-current single $\pi^{+}$ production flux-averaged absolute cross-section on water using the P0D detector of the ND280 detector complex in the T2K experiment Shamil Assylbekov, Robert Wilson, Tomasz Wachala We report an improved measurement of the charged-current single positive pion (CC1$\pi^{+}$) production cross-section on water using signal-enriched data samples obtained with the P0D Detector of the T2K experiment. The data favor a lower rate of forward going events when compared to that predicted by the NEUT Monte Carlo with default parameters. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 12:21PM - 12:33PM |
J7.00009: C$^{o}$sI: Coherent Neutrino Scattering with Cesium Iodide Nicole Fields, Juan Collar, Todd Hossbach, John Orrell, Gopakumar Perumpilly, Bjorn Scholz Coherent neutrino scattering is a process predicted by the standard model of particle physics that has not yet been observed. For low enough energy neutrinos, $O(10 MeV)$, their scattering cross section is predicted to increase with the square of the number of neutrons in a nucleus. Several difficulties must be overcome in order to observe coherent neutrino scattering, including finding a high-intensity source of these medium-energy neutrinos, a detector with a low enough threshold, and a low enough background. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a convenient source of medium-energy neutrinos and has the added benefit of a neutrino source with known time structure. CsI(Na) is an inorganic scintillator with a relatively high light yield of 39,000 photons/MeV and its emission spectrum is well matched with commonly used biakali photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Background measurements of a 2 kg CsI(Na) crystal show that these crystals can be grown and encapsulated in a radioclean way. [Preview Abstract] |
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