T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Izmaylov, A., Sorel, M., & Stamoulis, P. (2016). Measurement of Muon Antineutrino Oscillations with an Accelerator-Produced Off-Axis Beam. Phys. Rev. Lett., 116(18), 181801–8pp.
Abstract: T2K reports its first measurements of the parameters governing the disappearance of (nu) over bar μin an off-axis beam due to flavor change induced by neutrino oscillations. The quasimonochromatic (nu) over bar μbeam, produced with a peak energy of 0.6 GeVat J-PARC, is observed at the far detector Super-Kamiokande, 295 km away, where the (nu) over bar μsurvival probability is expected to be minimal. Using a data set corresponding to 4.01 x 10(20) protons on target, 34 fully contained mu-like events were observed. The best-fit oscillation parameters are sin(2) ((theta) over bar (23)) = 0.45 and vertical bar Delta(m) over bar (2)(32)vertical bar = 2.51 x 10(-3) eV(2) with 68% confidence intervals of 0.38-0.64 and 2.26-2.80 x 10(-3) eV(2), respectively. These results are in agreement with existing antineutrino parameter measurements and also with the nu(mu) disappearance parameters measured by T2K.
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Izmaylov, A., Sorel, M., & Stamoulis, P. (2016). Measurement of double-differential muon neutrino charged-current interactions on C8H8 without pions in the final state using the T2K off-axis beam. Phys. Rev. D, 93(11), 112012–25pp.
Abstract: We report the measurement of muon neutrino charged-current interactions on carbon without pions in the final state at the T2K beam energy using 5.734 x 10(20) protons on target. For the first time the measurement is reported as a flux-integrated, double-differential cross section in muon kinematic variables (cos theta(mu), p(mu)), without correcting for events where a pion is produced and then absorbed by final state interactions. Two analyses are performed with different selections, background evaluations and cross-section extraction methods to demonstrate the robustness of the results against biases due to model-dependent assumptions. The measurements compare favorably with recent models which include nucleon-nucleon correlations but, given the present precision, the measurement does not distinguish among the available models. The data also agree with Monte Carlo simulations which use effective parameters that are tuned to external data to describe the nuclear effects. The total cross section in the full phase space is sigma = (0.417 +/- 0.047(syst) +/- 0.005(stat)) x 10(-38) cm(2) nucleon(-1) and the cross section integrated in the region of phase space with largest efficiency and best signal-over-background ratio (cos theta(mu) > 0.6 and p(mu) > 200 MeV) is sigma = (0.202 +/- 0.036(syst) +/- 0.003(stat)) x 10(-38) cm(2) nucleon(-1).
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Novella, P., Izmaylov, A., Sorel, M., & Stamoulis, P. (2016). Measurement of Coherent pi(+) Production in Low Energy Neutrino-Carbon Scattering. Phys. Rev. Lett., 117(9), 192501–7pp.
Abstract: We report the first measurement of the flux-averaged cross section for charged current coherent pi(+) production on carbon for neutrino energies less than 1.5 GeV, and with a restriction on the final state phase space volume in the T2K near detector, ND280. Comparisons are made with predictions from the Rein-Sehgal coherent production model and the model by Alvarez-Ruso et al., the latter representing the first implementation of an instance of the new class of microscopic coherent models in a neutrino interaction Monte Carlo event generator. We observe a clear event excess above background, disagreeing with the null results reported by K2K and SciBooNE in a similar neutrino energy region. The measured flux-averaged cross sections are below those predicted by both the Rein-Sehgal and Alvarez-Ruso et al. models.
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NEXT Collaboration(Martin-Albo, J. et al), Muñoz Vidal, J., Ferrario, P., Nebot-Guinot, M., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Alvarez, V., et al. (2016). Sensitivity of NEXT-100 to neutrinoless double beta decay. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 159–30pp.
Abstract: NEXT-100 is an electroluminescent high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber that will search for the neutrinoless double beta (0v beta beta) decay of Xe-136. The detector possesses two features of great value for 0v beta beta searches: energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at the Q value of Xe-136 and track reconstruction for the discrimination of signal and background events. This combination results in excellent sensitivity, as discussed in this paper. Material-screening measurements and a detailed Monte Carlo detector simulation predict a background rate for NEXT-100 of at most 4 x 10(-4) counts keV(-1) kg(-1) yr(-1). Accordingly, the detector will reach a sensitivity to the 0v beta beta-decay half-life of 2.8 x 10(25) years (90% CL) for an exposure of 100 kg.year, or 6.0 x 10(25) years after a run of 3 effective years.
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NEXT Collaboration(Renner, J. et al), Benlloch-Rodriguez, J., Botas, A., Ferrario, P., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Alvarez, V., et al. (2017). Background rejection in NEXT using deep neural networks. J. Instrum., 12, T01004–21pp.
Abstract: We investigate the potential of using deep learning techniques to reject background events in searches for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure xenon time projection chambers capable of detailed track reconstruction. The differences in the topological signatures of background and signal events can be learned by deep neural networks via training over many thousands of events. These networks can then be used to classify further events as signal or background, providing an additional background rejection factor at an acceptable loss of efficiency. The networks trained in this study performed better than previous methods developed based on the use of the same topological signatures by a factor of 1.2 to 1.6, and there is potential for further improvement.
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