Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Calder, Alan | Jung, Chang K | Tsybychev, Dmitri | Viren, Brett.
Date
2014-12-01
Keywords
neutrino | 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/11401/76705
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
T2K (Tokai to Kamiokande) is a long baseline neutrino experiment located in Japan. It uses a 30 GeV proton beam at the J-PARC accelerator in Tokai to produce an intense off-axis muon neutrino beam that travels 295 km through the Earth to Super-Kamiokande. One of its primary goals is to measure neutrino oscillation parameters by directly detecting $\nu_e$ at Super-Kamiokande that have oscillated from the $\nu_{\mu}$ beam. The measurement of $\nu_{\mu} \rightarrow \nu_{e}$ oscillations are of a particular interest because this mode is sensitive to both mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ and CP phase $\delta_{CP}$ of the PMNS matrix. Precise measurement of $\nu_{\mu} \rightarrow \nu_{e}$ allows us to explore the possibility of CP violation in the lepton sector. This dissertation will describe the recent 2013 $\nu_e$ appearance oscillation analysis using the reconstructed neutrino energy spectrum by means of a maximum likelihood fit. The data used for this analysis corresponds to $6.57\times10^{20}$ POT. A total of 28 $\nu_e$ candidate events were observed, corresponding to a 7.2 $\sigma$ significance of $\nu_e$ appearance by non-zero $\theta_{13}$. These results are then combined with the world average value of $\theta_{13}$ from reactor experiments and some values of $\delta_{CP}$ are disfavored at the 90\% CL. | 154 pages
Recommended Citation
Hignight, Joshua Michael, "Observation of $\nu_e$ appearance from an off-axis $\nu_{\mu}$ beam utilizing the neutrino energy spectrum" (2014). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2587.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2587