Neutrinos

Thorsten Lux


For more than a decade IFAE has been contributing to several key experiments in the field of neutrino physics, such as K2K, which obtained the first measurement of neutrino oscillations with a neutrino beam from an accelerator, and T2K, that presented in 2011 the first indication of the transformation of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos, thereby demonstrating a non-zero value for the third mixing angle. Currently the focus of the group lays on the preparation of the T2K near detector upgrade and the evaluation of the liquid argon dual phase (LAr DP) concept as far detector for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).

T2K scientific results in 2018

T2K acquired more data in 2018 in neutrino and anti-neutrino modes reaching the milestone of $3\times10^{21}$ protons on target (POT). The increased statistics helped to achieve an even stronger confirmation on CP violation, indicating the highest probability for a $\delta_{CP}$ of about $\pi/2$.
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Figure 1:
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Figure 2:
IFAE continued with its contribution to reduce the systematic errors associ- ated to the neutrino cross-sections. IFAE group continue to adapt the neutrino cross-section model based on Local Fermi Gas into the official T2K Monte Carlo generator NEUT and to compare the MC also with experimental data from Mi- nos and Minerva. Figure (c) and (d) show the impact on the implementation when compared with data.
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Figure 3:
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Figure 4:

T2K ND280 UPGRADE

The T2K collaboration has decided to upgrade the current ND280 detector complex by replacing the current P0D detector, optimized for neutral current interactions, by a novel scintillator tracker (SuperFGD), two time projection chamber and a time of flight system providing a 4π acceptance for the outgoing lepton in this way. The IFAE group is deeply involved in the upgrade, both on management as also experimental side. The IFAE group is involved in the design and construction of the TPC field cage. Furthermore the group spent summer 2018 3 months at CERN to participate in testbeam measurements. The group is also involved in the data analysis and event reconstruction for both, TPC and and SuperFGD.