No Arabic abstract
The observation of the recent electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam and the high-precision measurement of the mixing angle $theta_{13}$ have led to a re-evaluation of the physics potential of the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Sensitivities are explored for CP violation in neutrinos, non-maximal $sin^22theta_{23}$, the octant of $theta_{23}$, and the mass hierarchy, in addition to the measurements of $delta_{CP}$, $sin^2theta_{23}$, and $Delta m^2_{32}$, for various combinations of $ u$-mode and (bar{ u})-mode data-taking. With an exposure of $7.8times10^{21}$~protons-on-target, T2K can achieve 1-$sigma$ resolution of 0.050(0.054) on $sin^2theta_{23}$ and $0.040(0.045)times10^{-3}~rm{eV}^2$ on $Delta m^2_{32}$ for 100%(50%) neutrino beam mode running assuming $sin^2theta_{23}=0.5$ and $Delta m^2_{32} = 2.4times10^{-3}$ eV$^2$. T2K will have sensitivity to the CP-violating phase $delta_{rm{CP}}$ at 90% C.L. or better over a significant range. For example, if $sin^22theta_{23}$ is maximal (i.e $theta_{23}$=$45^circ$) the range is $-115^circ<delta_{rm{CP}}<-60^circ$ for normal hierarchy and $+50^circ<delta_{rm{CP}}<+130^circ$ for inverted hierarchy. When T2K data is combined with data from the NO$ u$A experiment, the region of oscillation parameter space where there is sensitivity to observe a non-zero $delta_{CP}$ is substantially increased compared to if each experiment is analyzed alone.
The sensitivity of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) to neutrino oscillation is determined, based on a full simulation, reconstruction, and event selection of the far detector and a full simulation and parameterized analysis of the near detector. Detailed uncertainties due to the flux prediction, neutrino interaction model, and detector effects are included. DUNE will resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy to a precision of 5$sigma$, for all $delta_{mathrm{CP}}$ values, after 2 years of running with the nominal detector design and beam configuration. It has the potential to observe charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector to a precision of 3$sigma$ (5$sigma$) after an exposure of 5 (10) years, for 50% of all $delta_{mathrm{CP}}$ values. It will also make precise measurements of other parameters governing long-baseline neutrino oscillation, and after an exposure of 15 years will achieve a similar sensitivity to $sin^{2} 2theta_{13}$ to current reactor experiments.
Hyper-Kamiokande will be a next generation underground water Cherenkov detector with a total (fiducial) mass of 0.99 (0.56) million metric tons, approximately 20 (25) times larger than that of Super-Kamiokande. One of the main goals of Hyper-Kamiokande is the study of $CP$ asymmetry in the lepton sector using accelerator neutrino and anti-neutrino beams. In this paper, the physics potential of a long baseline neutrino experiment using the Hyper-Kamiokande detector and a neutrino beam from the J-PARC proton synchrotron is presented. The analysis uses the framework and systematic uncertainties derived from the ongoing T2K experiment. With a total exposure of 7.5 MW $times$ 10$^7$ sec integrated proton beam power (corresponding to $1.56times10^{22}$ protons on target with a 30 GeV proton beam) to a $2.5$-degree off-axis neutrino beam, it is expected that the leptonic $CP$ phase $delta_{CP}$ can be determined to better than 19 degrees for all possible values of $delta_{CP}$, and $CP$ violation can be established with a statistical significance of more than $3,sigma$ ($5,sigma$) for $76%$ ($58%$) of the $delta_{CP}$ parameter space. Using both $ u_e$ appearance and $ u_mu$ disappearance data, the expected 1$sigma$ uncertainty of $sin^2theta_{23}$ is 0.015(0.006) for $sin^2theta_{23}=0.5(0.45)$.
Medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation experiments (MBRO) have been proposed to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) and to make precise measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters. With sufficient statistics, better than ~3%/sqrt{E} energy resolution and well understood energy non-linearity, MH can be determined by analyzing oscillation signals driven by the atmospheric mass-squared difference in the survival spectrum of reactor antineutrinos. With such high performance MBRO detectors, oscillation parameters, such as sin^22theta_{12}, Delta m^2_{21}, and Delta m^2_{32}, can be measured to sub-percent level, which enables a future test of the PMNS matrix unitarity to ~1% level and helps the forthcoming neutrinoless double beta decay experiments to constrain the allowed <m_{beta beta}> values. Combined with results from the next generation long-baseline beam neutrino and atmospheric neutrino oscillation experiments, the MH determination sensitivity can reach higher levels. In addition to the neutrino oscillation physics, MBRO detectors can also be utilized to study geoneutrinos, astrophysical neutrinos and proton decay. We propose to start a U.S. R&D program to identify, quantify and fulfill the key challenges essential for the success of MBRO experiments.
We report on measurements of neutrino oscillation using data from the T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment collected between 2010 and 2013. In an analysis of muon neutrino disappearance alone, we find the following estimates and 68% confidence intervals for the two possible mass hierarchies: Normal Hierarchy: $sin^2theta_{23}=0.514^{+0.055}_{-0.056}$ and $Delta m^2_{32}=(2.51pm0.10)times 10^{-3}$ eV$^2$/c$^4$ Inverted Hierarchy: $sin^2theta_{23}=0.511pm0.055$ and $Delta m^2_{13}=(2.48pm0.10)times 10^{-3}$ eV$^2$/c$^4$ The analysis accounts for multi-nucleon mechanisms in neutrino interactions which were found to introduce negligible bias. We describe our first analyses that combine measurements of muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance to estimate four oscillation parameters and the mass hierarchy. Frequentist and Bayesian intervals are presented for combinations of these parameters, with and without including recent reactor measurements. At 90% confidence level and including reactor measurements, we exclude the region: $delta_{CP}=[0.15,0.83]pi$ for normal hierarchy and $delta_{CP}=[-0.08,1.09]pi$ for inverted hierarchy. The T2K and reactor data weakly favor the normal hierarchy with a Bayes Factor of 2.2. The most probable values and 68% 1D credible intervals for the other oscillation parameters, when reactor data are included, are: $sin^2theta_{23}=0.528^{+0.055}_{-0.038}$ and $|Delta m^2_{32}|=(2.51pm0.11)times 10^{-3}$ eV$^2$/c$^4$.
In the T2K near neutrino detectors, about 60 000 Hamamatsu Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs) will be used. The mass production of MPPC has started in February 2008.In order to perform quality assurance and to characterize each device, we have developed an MPPC test system. For each MPPC, gain, breakdown voltage, noise rate, photo detection efficiency, and cross-talk and after-pulse rate are measured as functions of the bias voltage and temperature. The design of the test system and the measurement procedure are described.