164 research outputs found
NuMI Beam Monitoring Simulation and Data Analysis Status and Progress
With the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) experiment decommissioned, muon and hadron monitors became an important diagnostic tool for the NuMI Off-axis v Appearance (NOvA) experiment at Fermilab to monitor the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam. The goal of this study is to maintain the quality of the monitor signals and to establish correlations with the neutrino beam profile. And we carry out a systematic study of the response of the muon monitors to the changes in the parameters of the proton beam and lattice parameters. We report here on the progress of the beam data analysis and comparison with the simulation results
Search for astronomical neutrinos from blazar TXS 0506+056 in super-kamiokande
We report a search for astronomical neutrinos in the energy region from several GeV to TeV in the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 using the Super-Kamiokande detector following the detection of a 100 TeV neutrinos from the same location by the IceCube collaboration. Using Super-Kamiokande neutrino data across several data samples observed from 1996 April to 2018 February we have searched for both a total excess above known backgrounds across the entire period as well as localized excesses on smaller timescales in that interval. No significant excess nor significant variation in the observed event rate are found in the blazar direction. Upper limits are placed on the electron- and muon-neutrino fluxes at the 90% confidence level as 6.0 × 10−7 and 4.5 × 10−7–9.3 × 10−10 [erg cm−2 s−1], respectively
Evaluation of gadolinium's action on water Cherenkov detector systems with EGADS
Used for both proton decay searches and neutrino physics, large water Cherenkov (WC) detectors have been very successful tools in particle physics. They are notable for their large masses and charged particle detection capabilities. While current WC detectors reconstruct charged particle tracks over a wide energy range, they cannot efficiently detect neutrons. Gadolinium (Gd) has the largest thermal neutron capture cross section of all stable nuclei and produces an 8 MeV gamma cascade that can be detected with high efficiency. Because of the many new physics opportunities that neutron tagging with a Gd salt dissolved in water would open up, a large-scale R&D program called EGADS was established to demonstrate this technique's feasibility. EGADS features all the components of a WC detector, chiefly a 200-ton stainless steel water tank furnished with 240 photo-detectors, DAQ, and a water system that removes all impurities in water while keeping Gd in solution. In this paper we discuss the milestones towards demonstrating the feasibility of this novel technique, and the features of EGADS in detail
An Improved Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters by the NOvA Experiment
We present new , ,
, and
oscillation measurements by
the NOvA experiment, with a 50% increase in neutrino-mode beam exposure over
the previously reported results. The additional data, combined with previously
published neutrino and antineutrino data, are all analyzed using improved
techniques and simulations. A joint fit to the , ,
, and candidate samples within the
3-flavor neutrino oscillation framework continues to yield a best-fit point in
the normal mass ordering and the upper octant of the mixing
angle, with eV and
. The data disfavor combinations of
oscillation parameters that give rise to a large asymmetry in the rates of
and appearance. This includes values of the
CP-violating phase in the vicinity of which are
excluded by for the inverted mass ordering, and values around
in the normal ordering which are disfavored at
2 confidence.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary material attached (7 figures
Measurement of the Double-Differential Muon-neutrino Charged-Current Inclusive Cross Section in the NOvA Near Detector
We report cross-section measurements of the final-state muon kinematics for
\numu charged-current interactions in the NOvA near detector using an
accumulated 8.09 protons-on-target (POT) in the NuMI beam. We
present the results as a double-differential cross section in the observed
outgoing muon energy and angle, as well as single-differential cross sections
in the derived neutrino energy, , and square of the four-momentum
transfer, . We compare the results to inclusive cross-section predictions
from various neutrino event generators via calculations using a
covariance matrix that accounts for bin-to-bin correlations of systematic
uncertainties. These comparisons show a clear discrepancy between the data and
each of the tested predictions at forward muon angle and low , indicating
a missing suppression of the cross section in current neutrino-nucleus
scattering models
Measurement of the Nucleus Charged-Current Double-Differential Cross Section at 2.4 GeV using NOvA
The inclusive electron neutrino charged-current cross section is measured in
the NOvA near detector using protons-on-target (POT) in the
NuMI beam. The sample of GeV electron neutrino interactions is the largest
analyzed to date and is limited by 17\% systematic rather than the
7.4\% statistical uncertainties. The double-differential cross section
in final-state electron energy and angle is presented for the first time,
together with the single-differential dependence on (squared
four-momentum transfer) and energy, in the range 1 GeV 6 GeV.
Detailed comparisons are made to the predictions of the GENIE, GiBUU, NEUT, and
NuWro neutrino event generators. The data do not strongly favor a model over
the others consistently across all three cross sections measured, though some
models have especially good or poor agreement in the single differential cross
section vs.
Measurement of neutrino and antineutrino neutral-current quasielasticlike interactions on oxygen by detecting nuclear deexcitation γ rays
Neutrino- and antineutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic-like
interactions are measured at Super-Kamiokande using nuclear de-excitation
-rays to identify signal-like interactions in data from a $14.94 \
(16.35)\times 10^{20}\langle \sigma_{\nu {\rm -NCQE}} \rangle = 1.70 \pm 0.17 ({\rm stat.}) ^{+
{\rm 0.51}}_{- {\rm 0.38}} ({\rm syst.}) \times 10^{-38} \ {\rm cm^2/oxygen}\langle \sigma_{\bar{\nu} {\rm
-NCQE}} \rangle = 0.98 \pm 0.16 ({\rm stat.}) ^{+ {\rm 0.26}}_{- {\rm 0.19}}
({\rm syst.}) \times 10^{-38} \ {\rm cm^2/oxygen}$ with a flux-averaged energy
of 0.68 GeV, for neutrinos and antineutrinos, respectively. These results are
the most precise to date, and the antineutrino result is the first cross
section measurement of this channel. They are compared with various theoretical
predictions. The impact on evaluation of backgrounds to searches for supernova
relic neutrinos at present and future water Cherenkov detectors is also
discussed
Atmospheric neutrino oscillation analysis with improved event reconstruction in Super-Kamiokande IV
A new event reconstruction algorithm based on a maximum likelihood method has been developed for Super-Kamiokande. Its improved kinematic and particle identification capabilities enable the analysis of atmospheric neutrino data in a detector volume 32% larger than previous analyses and increase the sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy. Analysis of a 253.9 kton⋅
⋅
year exposure of the Super-Kamiokande IV atmospheric neutrino data has yielded a weak preference for the normal hierarchy, disfavoring the inverted hierarchy at 74% assuming oscillations at the best fit of the analysis
Search for astronomical neutrinos from blazar TXS 0506+056 in Super-Kamiokande
We report a search for astronomical neutrinos in the energy region from several GeV to TeV in the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 using the Super-Kamiokande detector following the detection of a 100 TeV neutrinos from the same location by the IceCube collaboration. Using Super-Kamiokande neutrino data across several data samples observed from 1996 April to 2018 February we have searched for both a total excess above known backgrounds across the entire period as well as localized excesses on smaller timescales in that interval. No significant excess nor significant variation in the observed event rate are found in the blazar direction. Upper limits are placed on the electron- and muon-neutrino fluxes at the 90% confidence level as 6.0 × 10−7 and 4.5 × 10−7–9.3 × 10−10 [erg cm−2 s−1], respectively
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