Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2017
Volume 62, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, January 28–31, 2017; Washington, DC
Session K11: Neutrino II |
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Sponsoring Units: DPF Chair: Kate Scholberg, Duke University Room: Roosevelt 3 |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 1:30PM - 1:42PM |
K11.00001: The NOvA $\nu_e$ Appearance Analysis Marco Colo Since neutrino oscillations were first detected, oscillation experiments have managed to measure most of the parameters that govern this phenomenon. Major unknowns remain: the mass ordering - whether $\nu_3$ is the heaviest neutrino state, or the lightest; CP Violation - whether neutrino oscillation violate CP symmetry, and, if so, how big is the CP-violating phase $\delta_{CP}$; and, the $\theta_{23}$ octant - whether the value of $\theta_{23}$ resides in the lower octant ($\theta_{23}<45^\circ$) or upper octant ($\theta_{23}>45^\circ$) or is exactly maximal ($\theta_{23}=45^\circ$). NOvA, with its 810 km baseline, the longest of any currently running experiment, and its capability to switch between a $\nu_\mu$ source and a $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ source, is extremely well positioned to address these questions. In this talk, I will discuss the $\nu_e$ appearance analysis in NOvA: I will illustrate the analysis method, discuss the results that we have obtained in the latest round of analysis, and talk about what we expect from future runs. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 1:42PM - 1:54PM |
K11.00002: Charged Particle Multiplicity Analysis in MicroBooNE Aleena Rafique MicroBooNE is a short baseline neutrino experiment that utilizes 89 ton active volume liquid argon Time Projection Chamber (TPC) situated on the Booster Neutrino Beamline at Fermilab. It is the first of three liquid argon TPC detectors planned for the Fermilab Short Baseline Neutrino program and will directly probe the source of the anomalous excess of electron-like events in MiniBooNE, while also measuring low-energy neutrino cross sections and providing important R&D for future detectors. In this talk, a study of charged particle multiplicity using neutrino charged-current inclusive events is presented. This analysis can be used to test models of neutrino-argon scattering, and it may be particularly sensitive to nuclear final state interaction effects. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 1:54PM - 2:06PM |
K11.00003: Sterile antineutrino search in the MINOS experiment Rui Chen The MINOS experiment is a long-baseline on-axis neutrino oscillation experiment. The two detectors are separated by 734km and optimised for sensitivity to the disappearance of muon neutrinos and antineutrinos delivered by the NuMI beam at Fermilab. The MINOS detectors are magnetised, giving the experiment a unique ability to separate neutrinos and antineutrinos on an event-by-event basis. Thanks to the different possible NuMI beam configurations, MINOS has accumulated $10.56\times 10^{20}$ POT from a muon neutrino dominated beam and $3.36\times 10^{20}$ POT from a muon antineutrino enhanced beam. In this talk I will present an analysis of the muon antineutrino interactions collected in both beam configurations. The LSND and MiniBooNE experiments have observed non-standard electron antineutrino appearance in their oscillation analyses. A possible explanation for this is the 3+1 sterile neutrino model where one adds an additional neutrino to the current three-flavour model. MINOS is sensitive to this model through looking at the charged current neutrino and antineutrino energy spectra to probe any deviations from the three-flavour muon neutrino and antineutrino survival probabilities. In this talk, I will present new limits on sterile antineutrinos, using this 3+1 model. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
K11.00004: Study of Electromagnetic Interactions with the MicroBooNE Detector David Caratelli MicroBooNE is an experiment which employs the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) detector technology to study neutrinos produced with the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam. As for any accelerator-based detector interested in studying neutrino oscillations, it is essential to be able to identify and reconstruct the kinematic properties of electrons and photons produced in $\mu_{\nu}$ and $\nu_e$ interactions. We report current progress in reconstructing electron and photon electromagnetic (EM) showers using data from the MicroBooNE LArTPC. These studies cover EM showers in the tens to hundreds of MeV energy range; they lay the foundation for MicroBooNE's investigation of the excess of low-energy EM events reported by MiniBooNE, and are of interest to the wider LArTPC neutrino community. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
K11.00005: Development and Prototyping of the PROSPECT Antineutrino Detector Kelley Commeford The PROSPECT experiment will make the most precise measurement of the $^{235}$U reactor antineutrino spectrum as well as search for sterile neutrinos using a segmented Li-loaded liquid scintillator neutrino detector. Several prototype detectors of increasing size, complexity, and fidelity have been constructed and tested as part of the PROSPECT detector development program. The challenges to overcome include the efficient rejection of cosmogenic background and collection of optical photons in a compact volume. Design choices regarding segment structure and layout, calibration source deployment, and optical collection methods are discussed. Results from the most recent multi-segment prototype, PROSPECT-50, will also be shown. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
K11.00006: Deep Learning MicroBooNE Victor Genty, Kazuhiro Terao, Taritree Wonjirad The Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr TPC) technology provides a high resolution image of ionizing particle trajectories raising a need for new event reconstruction techniques based on pattern recognition. The traditional bottoms-up reconstruction approach to extract physics involves a complex sequence of signal waveform processing, 2D and/or 3D geometrical pattern recognition, calorimetry, and finally particle identification before a neutrino interaction can be identified in an event. We present a top-down reconstruction approach using a machine learning algorithm called Deep Learning which uses convolutional neural networks to find a neutrino interaction in a LAr TPC image. We trained our network on images of simulated single particles and neutrinos overlaid on cosmic-ray background data taken from the MicroBooNE detector. In this talk, we present our result that shows convolutional networks can successfully learn LAr TPC images to perform particle identification, neutrino event selection, and localization of a neutrino interaction vertex in a large LAr TPC image. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
K11.00007: Measurement of recombination in MicroBooNE Xiao Luo, Supraja Balasubramanian, Tingjun Yang MicroBooNE uses the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr TPC) technology to detect neutrino interactions from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam. Traveling through the detector volume, charged particles deposit energy by ionizing the argon and create positive argon ions and electron pairs along their trajectory. The electrons can recombine with an argon ion and reform a neutral atom and, as a result, the measured energy is only a fraction of the total energy lost by the particle. This process is called electron-ion recombination. Understanding this recombination effect is particularly important for performing calorimetry, identifying particle types, and achieving good energy resolution in LAr TPCs. This talk will present the status of MicroBooNE’s first recombination measurement obtained with cosmic ray data. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 29, 2017 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
K11.00008: The supernova neutrino readout of MicroBooNE Jose Ignacio Crespo Anadon The MicroBooNE detector is currently the largest liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) operative worldwide. In the case of a nearby (a few kiloparsecs away) core-collapse supernova, the emitted neutrinos would induce on the order of tens of interactions within the MicroBooNE TPC. This would constitute the first detection of supernova neutrinos with the LArTPC technology, offering a unique sensitivity to the electron neutrino flux. Due to the low energy of the events (tens of MeV), the detector size (89 tons of active volume) and the location near surface, MicroBooNE cannot trigger on supernova neutrinos and therefore relies on an external alert generated by other neutrino detectors (the SuperNova Early Warning System, or SNEWS). A continuous readout is being commissioned in MicroBooNE in which the data are temporarily stored in buffers, waiting for the SNEWS alert to save them permanently. In order to cope with the large data rate produced by the TPC and the PMT systems, online zero-suppression algorithms have been developed. This talk will explain the continuous supernova readout of MicroBooNE, which is of interest to the future short and long baseline neutrino programs which will bring additional LArTPCs online in the coming years. [Preview Abstract] |
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