A letter of intent for a neutrino scattering experiment on the booster neutrino meanline: FINeSSE

The experiment described in this Letter of Intent provides a decisive measurement of {Delta}s, the spin of the nucleon carried by strange quarks. This is crucial as, after more than thirty years of study, the spin contribution of strange quarks to the nucleon is still not understood. The interpretation of {Delta}s measurements from inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) experiments using charged leptons suffers from two questionable techniques; an assumption of SU(3)-flavor symmetry, and an extrapolation into unmeasured kinematic regions, both of which provide ample room for uncertain theoretical errors in the results. The results of recent semi-inclusive DIS data from HERMES paint a somewhat different picture of the contribution of strange quarks to the nucleon spin than do the inclusive results, but since HERMES does not make use of either of the above-mentioned techniques, then the results are somewhat incomparable. What is required is a measurement directly probing the spin contribution of the strange quarks in the nucleon. Neutrino experiments provide a theoretically clean and robust method of determining {Delta}s by comparing the neutral current interaction, which is isoscalar plus isovector, to the charged current interaction, which is strictly isovector. A past experiment, E734, performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has pioneered this effort. Building on what they have learned, we present an experiment which achieves a measurement to {+-} 0.025 using neutrino scattering, and {+-} 0.04 using anti-neutrino scattering, significantly better than past measurements. The combination of the neutrino and anti-neutrino data, when combined with the results of the parity-violating electron-nucleon scattering data, will produce the most significant result for {Delta}s. This experiment can also measure neutrino cross sections in the energy range required for accelerator-based precision oscillation measurements. Accurate measurements of cross sections have been identified as a priority of the neutrino community, as determined through the APS Multidisciplinary Study on the Future of Neutrino Physics. From the APS report, the Neutrino Matrix makes its recommendations in context of several assumptions regarding the neutrino program, including: ''Determination of the neutrino reaction and production cross sections required for a precise understanding of neutrino oscillation physics and the neutrino astronomy of astrophysical and cosmological sources. Our broad and exacting program of neutrino physics is built upon precise knowledge of how neutrinos interact with matter''. The experiment described here will provide unique information on cross sections of {approx}1 GeV neutrinos, in precisely the range explored by present and future long baseline oscillation programs. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is the natural place to perform this experiment. The physics goals proposed here grow the existing program and are necessary ingredients for the next generation oscillation physics measurements in this same energy range. This is a small, cost-effective, and timely experiment which fits well with the growing neutrino program at Fermilab

Effects of pressurization and surface tension on drawing Ge-Sb-Se chalcogenide glass suspended-core fiber

Drawing chalcogenide glass microstructured optical fibers efficiently requires a good understanding of the different drawing conditions beforehand, due to the high cost of the chalcogenide glass materials. A simulation based on Stokes’ model that includes pressurization and glass surface tension is validated with respect to drawing a Ge28Sb12Se60 chalcogenide glass single hole capillary, as well as microstructured optical fiber with three holes, with different pressurizations. Suspended-core Ge28Sb12Se60 fibers with bridges just hundreds of nanometer wide are drawn using parameters predicted by the simulations. These fibers should be suitable for applications such as generating mid-infrared (MIR) supercontinuum based on chalcogenide glasses.Wu Shengling, Simon Fleming, Boris T. Kuhlmey, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem and Alessio Stefan

Transient thermal effects in solid noble gases as materials for the detection of Dark Matter

The transient phenomena produced in solid noble gases by the stopping of the recoils resulting from the elastic scattering processes of WIMPs from the galactic halo were modelled, as dependencies of the temperatures of lattice and electronic subsystems on the distance to the recoil's trajectory, and time from its passage. The peculiarities of these thermal transients produced in Ar, Kr and Xe were analysed for different initial temperatures and WIMP energies, and were correlated with the characteristics of the targets and with the energy loss of the recoils. The results were compared with the thermal spikes produced by the same WIMPs in Si and Ge. In the range of the energy of interest, up to tens of keV for the self-recoil, local phase transitions solid - liquid and even liquid - gas were found possible, and the threshold parameters were established.Comment: Minor corrections and updated references; accepted to JCA

A Regenerable Filter for Liquid Argon Purification

A filter system for removing electronegative impurities from liquid argon is described. The active components of the filter are adsorbing molecular sieve and activated-copper-coated alumina granules. The system is capable of purifying liquid argon to an oxygen-equivalent impurity concentration of better than 30 parts per trillion, corresponding to an electron drift lifetime of at least 10 ms. Reduction reactions that occur at about 250 degrees Celsius allow the filter material to be regenerated in-situ through a simple procedure. In the following work we describe the filter design, performance, and regeneration process.Comment: 12 pages with 9 figure

Magnetic fields in protoplanetary disks

Magnetic fields likely play a key role in the dynamics and evolution of protoplanetary discs. They have the potential to efficiently transport angular momentum by MHD turbulence or via the magnetocentrifugal acceleration of outflows from the disk surface, and magnetically-driven mixing has implications for disk chemistry and evolution of the grain population. However, the weak ionisation of protoplanetary discs means that magnetic fields may not be able to effectively couple to the matter. I present calculations of the ionisation equilibrium and magnetic diffusivity as a function of height from the disk midplane at radii of 1 and 5 AU. Dust grains tend to suppress magnetic coupling by soaking up electrons and ions from the gas phase and reducing the conductivity of the gas by many orders of magnitude. However, once grains have grown to a few microns in size their effect starts to wane and magnetic fields can begin to couple to the gas even at the disk midplane. Because ions are generally decoupled from the magnetic field by neutral collisions while electrons are not, the Hall effect tends to dominate the diffusion of the magnetic field when it is able to partially couple to the gas. For a standard population of 0.1 micron grains the active surface layers have a combined column of about 2 g/cm^2 at 1 AU; by the time grains have aggregated to 3 microns the active surface density is 80 g/cm^2. In the absence of grains, x-rays maintain magnetic coupling to 10% of the disk material at 1 AU (150 g/cm^2). At 5 AU the entire disk thickness becomes active once grains have aggregated to 1 micron in size.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figs, aastex.cls. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science. v3 corrects bibliograph

First Observation of Coherent π0\pi^0 Production in Neutrino Nucleus Interactions with Eν<E_{\nu}< 2 GeV

The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab has amassed the largest sample to date of $\pi^0$s produced in neutral current (NC) neutrino-nucleus interactions at low energy. This paper reports a measurement of the momentum distribution of $\pi^0$s produced in mineral oil (CH$_2$) and the first observation of coherent $\pi^0$ production below 2 GeV. In the forward direction, the yield of events observed above the expectation for resonant production is attributed primarily to coherent production off carbon, but may also include a small contribution from diffractive production on hydrogen. Integrated over the MiniBooNE neutrino flux, the sum of the NC coherent and diffractive modes is found to be (19.5 $\pm$1.1 (stat) $\pm$2.5 (sys))% of all exclusive NC $\pi^0$ production at MiniBooNE. These measurements are of immediate utility because they quantify an important background to MiniBooNE's search for $\nu_{\mu} \to \nu_e$ oscillations.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett.

A Proposal for a Detector 2 km Away From the T2K Neutrino Source

We propose building a detector site 2km from the neutrino production point of the the T2K experiment. At this distance, almost the same neutrino flux is measured as that seen at Super-K 295 km away. We propose to measure this flux with both a 1 kton water Cherenkov detector which has been optimized to match Super-K resolution, and a 100 ton fiducial volume liquid argon time projection chamber which will provide fine grain imaging and low particle detection thresholds for a precise study of neutrino interactions at the relevant energies. High energy muons which exit the water Cherenkov detector will be measured by an iron muon ranger. In this document, we show that combination of a detector made with the same target as Super-K, with almost the same detector response, and an extremely fine-grained tracking chamber sited in the off-axis beam, will allow us to predict the events seen at Super-K with very little correction other than that of geometric acceptance

Test of Lorentz and CPT violation with Short Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Excesses

The sidereal time dependence of MiniBooNE electron neutrino and anti-electron neutrino appearance data are analyzed to search for evidence of Lorentz and CPT violation. An unbinned Kolmogorov-Smirnov test shows both the electron neutrino and anti-electron neutrino appearance data are compatible with the null sidereal variation hypothesis to more than 5%. Using an unbinned likelihood fit with a Lorentz-violating oscillation model derived from the Standard Model Extension (SME) to describe any excess events over background, we find that the electron neutrino appearance data prefer a sidereal time-independent solution, and the anti-electron neutrino appearance data slightly prefer a sidereal time-dependent solution. Limits of order 10E-20 GeV are placed on combinations of SME coefficients. These limits give the best limits on certain SME coefficients for muon neutrino to electron neutrino and anti-muon neutrino to anti-electron neutrino oscillations. The fit values and limits of combinations of SME coefficients are provided.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, and 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters

Design and construction of the MicroBooNE detector

This paper describes the design and construction of the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber and associated systems. MicroBooNE is the first phase of the Short Baseline Neutrino program, located at Fermilab, and will utilize the capabilities of liquid argon detectors to examine a rich assortment of physics topics. In this document details of design specifications, assembly procedures, and acceptance tests are reported

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR