T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Izmaylov, A., Monfregola, L., et al. (2014). Measurement of the intrinsic electron neutrino component in the T2K neutrino beam with the ND280 detector. Phys. Rev. D, 89(9), 092003–18pp.
Abstract: The T2K experiment has reported the first observation of the appearance of electron neutrinos in a muon neutrino beam. The main and irreducible background to the appearance signal comes from the presence in the neutrino beam of a small intrinsic component of electron neutrinos originating from muon and kaon decays. In T2K, this component is expected to represent 1.2% of the total neutrino flux. A measurement of this component using the near detector (ND280), located 280 m from the target, is presented. The charged current interactions of electron neutrinos are selected by combining the particle identification capabilities of both the time projection chambers and electromagnetic calorimeters of ND280. The measured ratio between the observed electron neutrino beam component and the prediction is 1.01 +/- 0.10 providing a direct confirmation of the neutrino fluxes and neutrino cross section modeling used for T2K neutrino oscillation analyses. Electron neutrinos coming from muons and kaons decay are also separately measured, resulting in a ratio with respect to the prediction of 0.68 +/- 0.30 and 1.10 +/- 0.14, respectively.
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Izmaylov, A., Monfregola, L., et al. (2014). Measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current interaction cross section by observing nuclear deexcitation gamma rays. Phys. Rev. D, 90(7), 072012–11pp.
Abstract: We report the first measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic (NCQE) cross section gamma It is obtained by observing nuclear deexcitation. rays which follow neutrino-oxygen interactions at the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector. We use T2K data corresponding to 3.01 x 10(20) protons on target. By selecting only events during the T2K beam window and with well-reconstructed vertices in the fiducial volume, the large background rate from natural radioactivity is dramatically reduced. We observe 43 events in the 4-30 MeV reconstructed energy window, compared with an expectation of 51.0, which includes an estimated 16.2 background events. The background is primarily nonquasielastic neutral-current interactions and has only 1.2 events from natural radioactivity. The flux-averaged NCQE cross section we measure is 1.55 x 10(-38) cm(2) with a 68% confidence interval of (1.22, 2.20) x 10(-38) cm(2) at a median neutrino energy of 630 MeV, compared with the theoretical prediction of 2.01 x 10(-38) cm(2).
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Izmaylov, A., Monfregola, L., et al. (2014). Observation of Electron Neutrino Appearance in a Muon Neutrino Beam. Phys. Rev. Lett., 112(6), 061802–8pp.
Abstract: The T2K experiment has observed electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam produced 295 km from the Super-Kamiokande detector with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV. A total of 28 electron neutrino events were detected with an energy distribution consistent with an appearance signal, corresponding to a significance of 7.3 sigma when compared to 4.92 +/- 0.55 expected background events. In the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing model, the electron neutrino appearance signal depends on several parameters including three mixing angles theta(12), theta(23), theta(13), a mass difference vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar and a CP violating phase delta(CP). In this neutrino oscillation scenario, assuming vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar = 2.4 x 10(-3) eV(2), sin theta(2)(23) = 0.5, and vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar > 0 (vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar < 0), a best- fit value of sin2 theta(2)(13) = 0.140(- 0.032)(+0.038) (0.170(-0.037)(+0.045)) is obtained at delta(CP) = 0. When combining the result with the current best knowledge of oscillation parameters including the world average value of theta(13) from reactor experiments, some values of delta(CP) are disfavored at the 90% C. L.
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Izmaylov, A., Monfregola, L., et al. (2013). Evidence of electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam. Phys. Rev. D, 88(3), 032002–41pp.
Abstract: The T2K Collaboration reports evidence for electron neutrino appearance at the atmospheric mass splitting, vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar approximate to 2.4 X 10(-3) eV(2). An excess of electron neutrino interactions over background is observed from a muon neutrino beam with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV at the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector 295 km from the beam's origin. Signal and background predictions are constrained by data from near detectors located 280 m from the neutrino production target. We observe 11 electron neutrino candidate events at the SK detector when a background of 3.3 +/- 0.4(syst) events is expected. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with a p value of 0.0009 (3.1 sigma), and a fit assuming nu(mu) -> nu(e) oscillations with sin (2)2 theta(23) = 1, delta(CP) = 0 and vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar = 2.4 X 10(-3) eV(2) yields sin (2)2 theta(13) = 0.088(-0.039)(+0.049)(stat + syst).
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Izmaylov, A., Monfregola, L., et al. (2013). Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters from Muon Neutrino Disappearance with an Off-Axis Beam. Phys. Rev. Lett., 111(21), 211803–7pp.
Abstract: The T2K Collaboration reports a precision measurement of muon neutrino disappearance with an off-axis neutrino beam with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV. Near detector measurements are used to constrain the neutrino flux and cross section parameters. The Super-Kamiokande far detector, which is 295 km downstream of the neutrino production target, collected data corresponding to 3.01 x 10(20) protons on target. In the absence of neutrino oscillations, 205 +/- 17 (syst) events are expected to be detected while only 58 muon neutrino event candidates are observed. A fit to the neutrino rate and energy spectrum, assuming three neutrino flavors and normal mass hierarchy yields a best-fit mixing angle sin(2) (theta(23)) = 0.514 +/- 0.082 and mass splitting vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar = 2.44(-0.15)(+0.17) x 10(-3) eV(2)/c(4). Our result corresponds to the maximal oscillation disappearance probability.
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