Reactor Measurement of theta_12; Principles, Accuracies and Physics Potentials

We discuss reactor measurement of \theta_{12} which has a potential of reaching the ultimate sensitivity which surpasses all the methods so far proposed. The key is to place a detector at an appropriate baseline distance from the reactor neutrino source to have an oscillation maximum at around a peak energy of the event spectrum in the absence of oscillation. By a detailed statistical analysis the optimal distance is estimated to be \simeq (50-70) km x [8 x 10^{-5} eV^2/\Delta m^2_{21}], which is determined by maximizing the oscillation effect in the event number distribution and minimizing geo-neutrino background contamination. To estimate possible uncertainty caused by surrounding nuclear reactors in distance of \sim 100 km, we examine a concrete example of a detector located at Mt. Komagatake, 54 km away from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan, the most powerful reactor complex in the world. The effect turns out to be small. Under a reasonable assumption of systematic error of 4% in the experiment, we find that sin^2{\theta_{12}} can be determined to the accuracy of \simeq 2% (\simeq 3%), at 68.27% CL for 1 degree of freedom, for 60 GW_th kton yr (20 GW_th kton yr) operation. We also discuss implications of such an accurate measurement of \theta_{12}.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures. version to appear in PR

Double Beta Decay

We review recent developments in double-beta decay, focusing on what can be learned about the three light neutrinos in future experiments. We examine the effects of uncertainties in already measured neutrino parameters and in calculated nuclear matrix elements on the interpretation of upcoming double-beta decay measurements. We then review a number of proposed experiments.Comment: Some typos corrected, references corrected and added. A less blurry version of figure 3 is available from authors. 41 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys.

Search for Electron Neutrino Appearance in a 250 km Long-baseline Experiment

We present a search for electron neutrino appearance from accelerator produced muon neutrinos in the K2K long baseline neutrino experiment. One candidate event is found in the data corresponding to an exposure of 4.8*10^19 protons on target. The expected background in the absence of neutrino oscillations is estimated to be 2.4+-0.6 events and is dominated by mis-identification of events from neutral current pi^0 production. We exclude the \nu_\mu to \nu_e oscillations at 90% C.L. for the effective mixing angle in 2-flavor approximation of sin^2(2theta_\mu_e) (~= 1/2 sin^2 2 th_13) > 0.15 at Delta m^2_\mu_e = 2.8*10^{-3} eV^2, the best fit value of the \nu_\mu disappearance analysis in K2K. The most stringent limit of sin^2(2theta_\mu_e) < 0.09 is obtained at Delta m^2_\mu_e = 6*10^{-3} eV^2.Comment: 5 pages with 2 figures embeded in two column revtex4 style. Accepted to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Constraints on Neutrino Oscillations Using 1258 Days of Super-Kamiokande Solar Neutrino Data

We report the result of a search for neutrino oscillations using precise measurements of the recoil electron energy spectrum and zenith angle variations of the solar neutrino flux from 1258 days of neutrino-electron scattering data in Super-Kamiokande. The absence of significant zenith angle variation and spectrum distortion places strong constraints on neutrino mixing and mass difference in a flux-independent way. Using the Super-Kamiokande flux measurement in addition, two allowed regions at large mixing are found.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Constraints on neutrino oscillation parameters from the measurement of day-night solar neutrino fluxes at Super-Kamiokande

A search for day-night variations in the solar neutrino flux resulting from neutrino oscillations has been carried out using the 504 day sample of solar neutrino data obtained at Super-Kamiokande. The absence of a significant day-night variation has set an absolute flux independent exclusion region in the two neutrino oscillation parameter space.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PRL, single-spacin

Search for Matter-Dependent Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations in Super-Kamiokande

We consider muon neutrino to tau neutrino oscillations in the context of the Mass Varying Neutrino (MaVaN) model, where the neutrino mass can vary depending on the electron density along the flight path of the neutrino. Our analysis assumes a mechanism with dependence only upon the electron density, hence ordinary matter density, of the medium through which the neutrino travels. Fully-contained, partially-contained and upward-going muon atmospheric neutrino data from the Super--Kamiokande detector, taken from the entire SK--I period of 1489 live days, are compared to MaVaN model predictions. We find that, for the case of 2-flavor oscillations, and for the specific models tested, oscillation independent of electron density is favored over density dependence. Assuming maximal mixing, the best-fit case and the density-independent case do not differ significantly.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Solar neutrino measurements in Super-Kamiokande-I

The details of Super--Kamiokande--I's solar neutrino analysis are given. Solar neutrino measurement in Super--Kamiokande is a high statistics collection of $^8$B solar neutrinos via neutrino-electron scattering. The analysis method and results of the 1496 day data sample are presented. The final oscillation results for the data are also presented.Comment: 32pages, 57figures, submitted to Physical Review