47 research outputs found
ICANOE - Imaging and Calorimetric Neutrino Oscillation Experiment
The main scientific goal of the ICANOE detector is the one of elucidating in
a comprehensive way the pattern of neutrino masses and mixings, following the
SuperKamiokande results and the observed solar neutrinos deficit. To achieve
these goals, the experimental method is based upon the complementary and
simultaneous detection of CERN beam (CNGS) and cosmic ray (CR) events. For the
currently allowed values of the SuperKamiokande results, both CNGS and cosmic
ray data will give independent measurements and provide a precise determination
of the oscillation parameters.Comment: Talk given at the Workshop on the Next generation Nucleon decay and
Neutrino detector (NNN99), September 23-25, 199
First operation of a liquid Argon TPC embedded in a magnetic field
We have operated for the first time a liquid Argon TPC immersed in a magnetic
field up to 0.55 T. We show that the imaging properties of the detector are not
affected by the presence of the magnetic field. The magnetic bending of the
ionizing particle allows to discriminate their charge and estimate their
momentum. These figures were up to now not accessible in the non-magnetized
liquid Argon TPC.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
A low energy optimization of the CERN-NGS neutrino beam for a theta_{13} driven neutrino oscillation search
The possibility to improve the CERN to Gran Sasso neutrino beam performances
for theta_{13} searches is investigated. We show that by an appropriate
optimization of the target and focusing optics of the present CNGS design, we
can increase the flux of low energy neutrinos by about a factor 5 compared to
the current tau optimized focalisation. With the ICARUS 2.35 kton detector at
LNGS and in case of negative result, this would allow to improve the limit to
sin^22 theta_{13} by an order of magnitude better than the current limit of
CHOOZ at Delta m^2 approximately 3 times 10^{-3} eV^2 within 5 years of nominal
CNGS running. This is by far the most sensitive setup of the currently approved
long-baseline experiments and is competitive with the proposed JHF superbeam.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
ArgoNeuT and the Neutrino-Argon Charged Current Quasi-Elastic Cross Section
ArgoNeuT, a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber in the NuMI beamline at
Fermilab, has recently collected thousands of neutrino and anti-neutrino events
between 0.1 and 10 GeV. The experiment will, among other things, measure the
cross section of the neutrino and anti-neutrino Charged Current Quasi-Elastic
interaction and analyze the vertex activity associated with such events. These
topics are discussed along with ArgoNeuT's automated reconstruction software,
currently capable of fully reconstructing the muon and finding the event vertex
in neutrino interactions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, presented at the International Nuclear Physics
Conference, Vancouver, Canada, July 4-9, 2010, to be published in Journal of
Physics: Conference Series (JPCS
Neutrino oscillation physics at an upgraded CNGS with large next generation liquid Argon TPC detectors
The determination of the missing element (magnitude and phase) of
the PMNS neutrino mixing matrix is possible via the detection of \numu\to\nue
oscillations at a baseline and energy given by the atmospheric
observations, corresponding to a mass squared difference . While the current optimization of the CNGS
beam provides limited sensitivity to this reaction, we discuss in this document
the physics potential of an intensity upgraded and energy re-optimized CNGS
neutrino beam coupled to an off-axis detector. We show that improvements in
sensitivity to compared to that of T2K and NoVA are possible with
a next generation large liquid Argon TPC detector located at an off-axis
position (position rather distant from LNGS, possibly at shallow depth). We
also address the possibility to discover CP-violation and disentangle the mass
hierarchy via matter effects. The considered intensity enhancement of the CERN
SPS has strong synergies with the upgrade/replacement of the elements of its
injector chain (Linac, PSB, PS) and the refurbishing of its own elements,
envisioned for an optimal and/or upgraded LHC luminosity programme.Comment: 37 pages, 20 figure
Proton driver optimization for new generation neutrino superbeams to search for sub-leading numu->nue oscillations ( angle)
We perform a systematic study of particle production and neutrino yields for
different incident proton energies and baselines , with the aim of
optimizing the parameters of a neutrino beam for the investigation of
-driven neutrino oscillations in the range allowed by
Superkamiokande results. We study the neutrino energy spectra in the
``relevant'' region of the first maximum of the oscillation at a given baseline
. We find that to each baseline corresponds an ``optimal'' proton energy
which minimizes the required integrated proton intensity needed to
observe a fixed number of oscillated events. In addition, we find that the
neutrino event rate in the relevant region scales approximately linearly with
the proton energy. Hence, baselines and proton energies can be
adjusted and the performance for neutrino oscillation searches will remain
approximately unchanged provided that the product of the proton energy times
the number of protons on target remains constant. We apply these ideas to the
specific cases of 2.2, 4.4, 20, 50 and 400 GeV protons. We simulate focusing
systems that are designed to best capture the secondary pions of the
``optimal'' energy. We compute the expected sensitivities to
for the various configurations by assuming the existence
of new generation accelerators able to deliver integrated proton intensities on
target times the proton energy of the order of ${\cal O}(5\times 10^{23})\rm\
GeV\times\rm pot/year$.Comment: 39 pages, 17 figure
Underground Neutrino Detectors for Particle and Astroparticle Science: the Giant Liquid Argon Charge Imaging ExpeRiment (GLACIER)
The current focus of the CERN program is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC),
however, CERN is engaged in long baseline neutrino physics with the CNGS
project and supports T2K as recognized CERN RE13, and for good reasons: a
number of observed phenomena in high-energy physics and cosmology lack their
resolution within the Standard Model of particle physics; these puzzles include
the origin of neutrino masses, CP-violation in the leptonic sector, and baryon
asymmetry of the Universe. They will only partially be addressed at LHC. A
positive measurement of would certainly give a
tremendous boost to neutrino physics by opening the possibility to study CP
violation in the lepton sector and the determination of the neutrino mass
hierarchy with upgraded conventional super-beams. These experiments (so called
``Phase II'') require, in addition to an upgraded beam power, next generation
very massive neutrino detectors with excellent energy resolution and high
detection efficiency in a wide neutrino energy range, to cover 1st and 2nd
oscillation maxima, and excellent particle identification and
background suppression. Two generations of large water Cherenkov
detectors at Kamioka (Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande) have been extremely
successful. And there are good reasons to consider a third generation water
Cherenkov detector with an order of magnitude larger mass than Super-Kamiokande
for both non-accelerator (proton decay, supernovae, ...) and accelerator-based
physics. On the other hand, a very massive underground liquid Argon detector of
about 100 kton could represent a credible alternative for the precision
measurements of ``Phase II'' and aim at significantly new results in neutrino
astroparticle and non-accelerator-based particle physics (e.g. proton decay).Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure
A hardware implementation of Region-of-Interest selection in LAr-TPC for data reduction and triggering
Large Liquid Argon TPC detectors in the range of multikton mass for neutrino
and astroparticle physics require the extraction and treatment of signals from
some 105 wires. In order to enlarge the throughtput of the DAQ system an
on-line lossless data compression has been realized reducing almost a factor 4
the data flow. Moreover a trigger system based on a new efficient on-line
identification algorithm of wire hits was studied, implemented on the actual
ICARUS digital read- out boards and fully tested on the ICARINO LAr-TPC
facility operated at LNL INFN Laboratory with cosmic-rays. Capability to
trigger isolated low energy events down to 1 MeV visible energy was also
demonstrated.Comment: 26 pages, 26 Figure; to be submitted to JINS
Statistical Pattern Recognition: Application to Oscillation Searches Based on Kinematic Criteria
Classic statistical techniques (like the multi-dimensional likelihood and the
Fisher discriminant method) together with Multi-layer Perceptron and Learning
Vector Quantization Neural Networks have been systematically used in order to
find the best sensitivity when searching for
oscillations. We discovered that for a general direct appearance
search based on kinematic criteria: a) An optimal discrimination power is
obtained using only three variables (, and
) and their correlations. Increasing the number of variables (or
combinations of variables) only increases the complexity of the problem, but
does not result in a sensible change of the expected sensitivity. b) The
multi-layer perceptron approach offers the best performance. As an example to
assert numerically those points, we have considered the problem of
appearance at the CNGS beam using a Liquid Argon TPC detector.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure
Oscillation effects on supernova neutrino rates and spectra and detection of the shock breakout in a liquid Argon TPC
A liquid Argon TPC (ICARUS-like) has the ability to detect clean neutrino
bursts from type-II supernova collapses. In this paper, we consider for the
first time the four possible detectable channels, namely, the elastic
scattering on electrons from all neutrino species, charged current
absorption on with production of excited , charged current
absorption on with production of excited and neutral current
interactions on from all neutrino flavors. We compute the total rates and
energy spectra of supernova neutrino events including the effects of the
three--flavor neutrino oscillation with matter effects in the propagation in
the supernova. Results show a dramatic dependence on the oscillation parameters
and in the energy spectrum, especially for charged-current events. The shock
breakout phase has also been investigated using recent simulations of the core
collapse supernova. We stress the importance of the neutral current signal to
decouple supernova from neutrino oscillation physics.Comment: 40 pages, 19 figures, version v2 accepted for publication in JCAP.
accepted in JCA