Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Jung, Chang Kee | Dawber, Matt | Meade, Patrick | Mauger, Christopher.
Date
2014-12-01
Keywords
ND280, neutral current, neutrino, Pi-Zero Detector, T2K | Particle physics
Department
Department of Physics.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76700
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
The T2K Experiment is a long-baseline neutrino experiment that stretches 295 km from the east to the west coast of Japan (Tokai-Mura to Kamioka). One of the major goals of the experiment is a measurement of theta_{13} and (if theta_{13} is non-zero) potentially CP violation in the lepton sector. This is performed by searching for nu_e appearance in a nu_mu beam from the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The far detector, Super Kamiokande (SK), is a water Cherenkov detector. One of the dominant background for SK in the oscillation measurement is the uncertainty on the cross section of the Neutral Current Single Pi0 (NC1Pi0) interaction. In order to constrain this background, the Pi0 detector (P0D) was placed in the near detector complex, 280 meters from the beam origin. The P0D was constructed with a water target that can be filled an drained in order to perform a material subtraction to measure various cross sections on-water. This analysis presents the first on-water NC1Pi0 rate measurement with a neutrino beam energy less than 1 GeV. Using the NEUT Monte Carlo, a cut selection was developed in order to accentuate the difference between the signal and background shapes of the reconstructed invariant mass of the Pi0 particle. The selected events and a muon decay sideband, used to constrain the shape of the background events, are then simultaneously fit in order to extract an observed number of signal events. The observed data is then compared to Monte Carlo. Using T2K Runs 1-4 (total of 6.13 x 10^20 protons on target), a ratio of 0.790+-0.76(stat)+-0143(sys) (0.850+-0.091(stat)+-0.137(sys)) is found for the P0D water-in (water-out) configuration. After calculating the subtracted number of events on-water from the water-in and water-out data, a data to NEUT Monte Carlo ratio of 0.677 +- 0.261(stat) +- 0.462(sys) is found for the rate of NC1Pi0 interactions on-water. | 193 pages
Recommended Citation
Gilje, Karin Elisabeth, "Neutral Current Pi-zero Production Rate Measurement On-Water Using the Pi-Zero Detector in the Near Detector of the T2K Experiment" (2014). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2583.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2583