We have applied a microscopic model for single photon emission in neutral current interactions on nucleons and nuclei to determine the number and distributions of such events at the Super-Kamiokande detector, for the flux and beam exposure of the T2K
experiment in neutrino mode. These reactions represent an irreducible background in electron-(anti)neutrino appearance measurements aimed at a precise measurement of mixing angle $theta_{13}$ and the $CP$ violating phase. We have obtained a total number of photon events that is twice larger than the one from the NEUT event generator (version 5.1.4.2) used in the analysis of T2K data. Detailed comparisons of energy and angular distributions for the $ u_mu$ and $bar u_mu$ fluxes have also been performed.
A search for neutrino oscillations induced by Lorentz violation has been performed using 4,438 live-days of Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino data. The Lorentz violation is included in addition to standard three-flavor oscillations using the non-
perturbative Standard Model Extension (SME), allowing the use of the full range of neutrino path lengths, ranging from 15 to 12,800 km, and energies ranging from 100 MeV to more than 100 TeV in the search. No evidence of Lorentz violation was observed, so limits are set on the renormalizable isotropic SME coefficients in the $emu$, $mutau$, and $etau$ sectors, improving the existing limits by up to seven orders of magnitude and setting limits for the first time in the neutrino $mutau$ sector of the SME.
We present limits on sterile neutrino mixing using 4,438 live-days of atmospheric neutrino data from the Super-Kamiokande experiment. We search for fast oscillations driven by an eV$^2$-scale mass splitting and for oscillations into sterile neutrinos
instead of tau neutrinos at the atmospheric mass splitting. When performing both these searches we assume that the sterile mass splitting is large, allowing $sin^2(Delta m^2 L/4E)$ to be approximated as $0.5$, and we assume that there is no mixing between electron neutrinos and sterile neutrinos ($|U_{e4}|^2 = 0$). No evidence of sterile oscillations is seen and we limit $|U_{mu4}|^2$ to less than 0.041 and $|U_{tau4}|^2$ to less than 0.18 for $Delta m^2 > 0.8$ eV$^2$ at the 90% C.L. in a 3+1 framework. The approximations that can be made with atmospheric neutrinos allow these limits to be easily applied to 3+N models, and we provide our results in a generic format to allow comparisons with other sterile neutrino models.
We have searched for proton decay via $p rightarrow u K^{+}$ using Super-Kamiokande data from April 1996 to February 2013, 260 kiloton$cdot$year exposure in total. No evidence for this proton decay mode is found. A lower limit of the proton lifetime
is set to $5.9 times 10^{33}$ years at 90% confidence level.
We report an indication that the elastic scattering rate of solar $^8$B neutrinos with electrons in the Super-Kamiokande detector is larger when the neutrinos pass through the Earth during nighttime. We determine the day/night asymmetry, defined as t
he difference of the average day rate and average night rate divided by the average of those two rates, to be $(-3.2pm1.1(text{stat})pm0.5(text{syst}))%$, which deviates from zero by 2.7 $sigma$. Since the elastic scattering process is mostly sensitive to electron-flavored solar neutrinos, a non-zero day/night asymmetry implies that the flavor oscillations of solar neutrinos are affected by the presence of matter within the neutrinos flight path. Super-Kamiokandes day/night asymmetry is consistent with neutrino oscillations for $4times10^{-5}$eV$^2leqDelta m^2_{21}leq7times10^{-5}$eV$^2$ and large mixing values of $theta_{12}$, at the $68%$ C.L.
Procedures and results on hardware level detector calibration in Super-Kamiokande (SK) are presented in this paper. In particular, we report improvements made in our calibration methods for the experimental phase IV in which new readout electronics h
ave been operating since 2008. The topics are separated into two parts. The first part describes the determination of constants needed to interpret the digitized output of our electronics so that we can obtain physical numbers such as photon counts and their arrival times for each photomultiplier tube (PMT). In this context, we developed an in-situ procedure to determine high-voltage settings for PMTs in large detectors like SK, as well as a new method for measuring PMT quantum efficiency and gain in such a detector. The second part describes the modeling of the detector in our Monte Carlo simulation, including in particular the optical properties of its water target and their variability over time. Detailed studies on the water quality are also presented. As a result of this work, we achieved a precision sufficient for physics analysis over a wide energy range (from a few MeV to above a TeV). For example, the charge determination was understood at the 1% level, and the timing resolution was 2.1 nsec at the one-photoelectron charge level and 0.5 nsec at the 100-photoelectron charge level.
We present the results of searches for nucleon decay via bound neutron to antineutrino plus pizero and proton to antineutrino plus piplus using data from a combined 172.8 kiloton-years exposure of Super-Kamiokande-I, -II, and -III. We set lower limit
s on the partial lifetime for each of these modes. For antineutrino pizero, the partial lifetime is >1.1x10^{33} years; for antineutrino piplus, the partial lifetime is >3.9x10^{32} years at 90% confidence level.
Searches for a nucleon decay into a charged anti-lepton (e^+ or {mu}^+) plus a light meson ({pi}^0, {pi}^-, {eta}, {rho}^0, {rho}^-, {omega}) were performed using the Super-Kamiokande I and II data. Twelve nucleon decay modes were searched for. The t
otal exposure is 140.9 kiloton cdot years, which includes a 91.7 kiloton cdot year exposure (1489.2 live days) of Super-Kamiokande-I and a 49.2 kiloton cdot year exposure (798.6 live days) of Super-Kamiokande-II. The number of candidate events in the data was consistent with the atmospheric neutrino background expectation. No significant evidence for a nucleon decay was observed in the data. Thus, lower limits on the nucleon partial lifetime at 90% confidence level were obtained. The limits range from 3.6 times 10^31 to 8.2 times 10^33 years, depending on the decay modes.
GUT monopoles captured by the Suns gravitation are expected to catalyze proton decays via the Callan-Rubakov process. In this scenario, protons, which initially decay into pions, will ultimately produce u_{e}, u_{mu} and bar{ u}_{mu}. After undergo
ing neutrino oscillation, all neutrino species appear when they arrive at the Earth, and can be detected by a 50,000 metric ton water Cherenkov detector, Super-Kamiokande (SK). A search for low energy neutrinos in the electron total energy range from 19 to 55 MeV was carried out with SK and gives a monopole flux limit of F_M(sigma_0/1 mb) < 6.3 times 10^{-24} (beta_M/10^{-3})^2 cm^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} at 90% C.L., where beta_M is the monopole velocity in units of the speed of light and sigma_0 is the catalysis cross section at beta_M=1. The obtained limit is more than eight orders of magnitude more stringent than the current best cosmic-ray supermassive monopole flux limit, F_M < 1 times 10^{-15} cm^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} for beta_M < 10^{-3} and also two orders of magnitude lower than the result of the Kamiokande experiment, which used a similar detection method.
A search for neutron-antineutron ($n-bar{n}$) oscillation was undertaken in Super-Kamiokande using the 1489 live-day or $2.45 times 10^{34}$ neutron-year exposure data. This process violates both baryon and baryon minus lepton numbers by an absolute
value of two units and is predicted by a large class of hypothetical models where the seesaw mechanism is incorporated to explain the observed tiny neutrino masses and the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. No evidence for $n-bar{n}$ oscillation was found, the lower limit of the lifetime for neutrons bound in ${}^{16}$O, in an analysis that included all of the significant sources of experimental uncertainties, was determined to be $1.9 times 10^{32}$~years at the 90% confidence level. The corresponding lower limit for the oscillation time of free neutrons was calculated to be $2.7 times 10^8$~s using a theoretical value of the nuclear suppression factor of $0.517 times 10^{23}$~s$^{-1}$ and its uncertainty.
