Abstract: A theta (13) oscillation analysis based on the observed antineutrino rates at the Double Chooz far and near detectors for different reactor power conditions is presented. This approach provides a so far unique simultaneous determination of theta (13) and the total background rates without relying on any assumptions on the specific background contributions. The analysis comprises 865 days of data collected in both detectors with at least one reactor in operation. The oscillation results are enhanced by the use of 24.06 days (12.74 days) of reactor-off data in the far (near) detector. The analysis considers the nu <mml:mo stretchy=“true”><overbar></mml:mover>e interactions up to a visible energy of 8.5 MeV, using the events at higher energies to build a cosmogenic background model considering fast-neutrons interactions and Li-9 decays. The background-model-independent determination of the mixing angle yields sin(2)(2 theta (13)) = 0.094 0.017, being the best-fit total background rates fully consistent with the cosmogenic background model. A second oscillation analysis is also performed constraining the total background rates to the cosmogenic background estimates. While the central value is not significantly modified due to the consistency between the reactor-off data and the background estimates, the addition of the background model reduces the uncertainty on theta (13) to 0.015. Along with the oscillation results, the normalization of the anti-neutrino rate is measured with a precision of 0.86%, reducing the 1.43% uncertainty associated to the expectation.

Abstract: Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an excellent diffuse reflector widely used in light collection systems for particle physics experiments. In noble element systems, it is often coated with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) to allow detection of vacuum ultraviolet scintillation light. In this work this dependence is investigated for PTFE coated with TPB in air for light of wavelengths of 200 nm, 260 nm, and 450 nm. The results show that TPB-coated PTFE has a reflectance of approximately 92% for thicknesses ranging from 5 mm to 10 mm at 450 nm, with negligible variation as a function of thickness within this range. A cross-check of these results using an argon chamber supports the conclusion that the change in thickness from 5 mm to 10 mm does not affect significantly the light response at 128 nm. Our results indicate that pieces of TPB-coated PTFE thinner than the typical 10 mm can be used in particle physics detectors without compromising the light signal.

Abstract: The T2K experiment widely uses plastic scintillator as a target for neutrino interactions and an active medium for the measurement of charged particles produced in neutrino interactions at its near detector complex. Over 10 years of operation the measured light yield recorded by the scintillator based subsystems has been observed to degrade by 0.9-2.2% per year. Extrapolation of the degradation rate through to 2040 indicates the recorded light yield should remain above the lower threshold used by the current reconstruction algorithms for all subsystems. This will allow the near detectors to continue contributing to important physics measurements during the T2K-II and Hyper-Kamiokande eras. Additionally, work to disentangle the degradation of the plastic scintillator and wavelength shifting fibres shows that the reduction in light yield can be attributed to the ageing of the plastic scintillator. The long component of the attenuation length of the wavelength shifting fibres was observed to degrade by 1.3-5.4% per year, while the short component of the attenuation length did not show any conclusive degradation.

Abstract: Electron antineutrino appearance is measured by the T2K experiment in an accelerator-produced antineutrino beam, using additional neutrino beam operation to constrain parameters of the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) mixing matrix. T2K observes 15 candidate electron antineutrino events with a background expectation of 9.3 events. Including information from the kinematic distribution of observed events, the hypothesis of no electron antineutrino appearance is disfavored with a significance of 2.40s and no discrepancy between data and PMNS predictions is found. A complementary analysis that introduces an additional free parameter which allows non-PMNS values of electron neutrino and antineutrino appearance also finds no discrepancy between data and PMNS predictions.

Abstract: We perform a search for light sterile neutrinos using the data from the T2K far detector at a baseline of 295 km, with an exposure of 14.7(7.6) x 10(20) protons on target in neutrino (antineutrino) mode. A selection of neutral-current interaction samples is also used to enhance the sensitivity to sterile mixing. No evidence of sterile neutrino mixing in the 3 + 1 model was found from a simultaneous fit to the charged-current muon, electron and neutral-current neutrino samples. We set the most stringent limit on the sterile oscillation amplitude sin(2)theta(24 )for the sterile neutrino mass splitting Delta m(41)(2 )< 3 x 10(-3 )eV(2)/c(4).