Long-baseline Experiments Research Articles

Commissioning of a High Pressure Time Projection Chamber with Optical Readout

The measurements of proton–nucleus scattering and high resolution neutrino–nucleus interaction imaging are key in reducing neutrino oscillation systematic uncertainties in future experiments. A High Pressure Time Projection Chamber (HPTPC) prototype has been constructed and operated at the Royal Holloway University of London and CERN as a first step in the development of a HPTPC that is capable of performing these measurements as part of a future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. In this paper, we describe the design and operation of the prototype HPTPC with an argon based gas mixture. We report on the successful hybrid charge and optical readout using four CCD cameras of signals from 241Am sources.

Physics prospects with the second oscillation maximum at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

Current long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiments such as NO$\nu$A and T2K are mainly sensitive to physics in the neighbourhood of the first oscillation maximum of the $\nu_\mu \to \nu_e$ oscillation probability. The future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) utilizes a wide-band beam tune optimized for CP violation sensitivity that fully covers the region of the first maxima and part of the second. In the present study, we elucidate the role of second oscillation maximum in addressing issues pertaining to unknowns in the standard three flavour paradigm. We consider a new DUNE beam tune optimized for coverage of the region of the second oscillation maxima which could be realized using proposed accelerator upgrades that provide multi-MW of power at proton energies of 8 GeV. We find that addition of the multi-MW 8 GeV beam to DUNE wide-band running leads to modest improvement in sensitivity to CP violation, mass hierarchy, the octant of $\theta_{23}$ as well as the resolution of $\delta$ and the Jarlskog invariant. Significant improvements to the DUNE neutrino energy resolution yield a much larger improvement in performance. We conclude that the standard DUNE wide-band beam when coupled with excellent detector resolution capabilities is sufficient to resolve $\delta$ to better than $\sim 12^\circ$ for all values of $\delta$ in a decade of running. For second maxima (8 GeV 3MW) beam running concurrently with the standard wide-band (80 GeV 2.2 MW) beam for 5 of the 10 years, it is found that $\delta$ can be further resolved better than $\sim 10^\circ$ for all values of $\delta$.

New cosmological bounds on hot relics: axions and neutrinos

ABSTRACT Axions, if realized in nature, can be copiously produced in the early universe via thermal processes, contributing to the mass-energy density of thermal hot relics. In light of the most recent cosmological observations, we analyse two different thermal processes within a realistic mixed hot dark matter scenario which includes also massive neutrinos. Considering the axion–gluon thermalization channel, we derive our most constraining bounds on the hot relic masses ma < 7.46 eV and ∑mν < 0.114 eV both at 95 per cent CL; while studying the axion–pion scattering, without assuming any specific model for the axion–pion interactions, and remaining in the range of validity of the chiral perturbation theory, our most constraining bounds are improved to ma < 0.91 eV and ∑mν < 0.105 eV, both at 95 per cent CL. Interestingly, in both cases, the total neutrino mass lies very close to the inverted neutrino mass ordering prediction. If future terrestrial double beta decay and/or long-baseline neutrino experiments find that the nature mass ordering is the inverted one, this could rule out a wide region in the currently allowed thermal axion window. Our results therefore, strongly support multi messenger searches of axions and neutrino properties, together with joint analyses of their expected sensitivities.

Effect of Sterile Phases on Degeneracy Resolution Capabilities of LBL Experiments

In sterile neutrino (3+1) parameterisation, we observe that sterile phases ($\delta_{14},\delta_{24}$) are always together in oscillation probability, even when the MSW effect is considered. We see that the difference between the sterile phases has a more dominating effect over event rates compared to small variations due to changes in individual values. In this work, we show the value of sterile phase difference ($\delta_{14}-\delta_{24}$) that least affects the parameter degeneracy resolution of $\delta_{13},\theta_{23}$ at long-baseline experiments.

Invisible neutrino decay: first vs second oscillation maximum

We study the physics potential of the long-baseline experiments T2HK, T2HKK and ESSνSB in the context of invisible neutrino decay. We consider normal mass ordering and assume the state ν3 as unstable, decaying into sterile states during the flight and obtain constraints on the neutrino decay lifetime (τ3). We find that T2HK, T2HKK and ESSνSB are sensitive to the decay-rate of ν3 for τ3/m3 ≤ 2.72 × 10−11s/eV, τ3/m3 ≤ 4.36 × 10−11s/eV and τ3/m3 ≤ 2.43 × 10−11s/eV respectively at 3σ C.L. We compare and contrast the sensitivities of the three experiments and specially investigate the role played by the mixing angle θ23. It is seen that for experiments with flux peak near the second oscillation maxima, the poorer sensitivity to θ23 results in weaker constraints on the decay lifetime. Although, T2HKK has one detector close to the second oscillation maxima, having another detector at the first oscillation maxima results in superior sensitivity to decay. In addition, we find a synergy between the two baselines of the T2HKK experiment which helps in giving a better sensitivity to decay for θ23 in the higher octant. We discuss the octant sensitivity in presence of decay and show that there is an enhancement in sensitivity which occurs due to the contribution from the survival probability Pμμ is more pronounced for the experiments at the second oscillation maxima. We also obtain the combined sensitivity of T2HK+ESSνSB and T2HKK+ESSνSB as τ3/m3 ≤ 4.36 × 10−11s/eV and τ3/m3 ≤ 5.53 × 10−11s/eV respectively at 3σ C.L.

Matter versus vacuum oscillations at long-baseline accelerator neutrino experiments

The neutrino oscillation probabilities at the long-baseline accelerator neutrino experiments are expected to be modified by matter effects. We search for evidence of such modification in the data of T2K and NO[Formula: see text]A, by fitting the data to the hypothesis of (a) matter modified oscillations and (b) vacuum oscillations. We find that vacuum oscillations provide as good a fit to the data as matter modified oscillations. Even extended runs of T2K and NO[Formula: see text]A, with five years in neutrino mode [Formula: see text] and five years in anti-neutrino mode [Formula: see text], cannot make a [Formula: see text] distinction between vacuum and matter modified oscillations. The future experiment DUNE, with neutrino and anti-neutrino runs of five years each [Formula: see text], can rule out vacuum oscillations by itself at [Formula: see text] if the hierarchy is normal. If the hierarchy is inverted, a [Formula: see text] discrimination against vacuum oscillations requires the combination of [Formula: see text] runs of T2K, NO[Formula: see text]A and DUNE.

Sensitivities of future reactor and long-baseline neutrino experiments to NSI

We investigate the potential of the next generation long-baseline neutrino experiments DUNE and T2HK as well as the upcoming reactor experiment JUNO to constrain Non-Standard Interaction (NSI) parameters. JUNO is going to provide the most precise measurements of solar neutrino oscillation parameters as well as determining the neutrino mass ordering. We study how the results of JUNO combined with those of long-baseline neutrino experiments such as DUNE and T2HK can help to determine oscillation parameters and to constrain NSI parameters. We present excluded regions in NSI parameter space, $\epsilon_{\alpha \beta}$ assuming Standard Model (SM) as the null hypothesis. We further explore the correlations between the NSI parameters and CP-violation phase.

Non-Unitarity at DUNE and T2HK with charged and neutral current measurements

Neutral current (NC) measurements play an important role in exploring new physics scenarios at long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. We find that combining NC measurements of the proposed Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) with its charged current (CC) measurements enhances the bounds on some of the non-unitarity parameters. Combining DUNE with the T2HK experiment improves the bounds further. We show that even in the averaged out regime of light sterile neutrinos, the NC events are different from the heavy sterile case in the leading order. It is observed that NC measurements at DUNE provide much better constraints on the α 33 parameter than the CC measurements.

Accelerator design for 1.3-MW beam power operation of the J-PARC Main Ring

Abstract The J-PARC Main Ring (MR) has supplied the high-intensity proton beam for the T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment since 2010. The present beam power is 510 kW and the total number of protons on the target reaches $3.64\times10^{21}$. To observe charge-conjugation and parity-transformation (CP) violation in the lepton sector with high accuracy, more protons need to be delivered to the T2K target. The project to upgrade the beam power to 1.3 MW started as a mid-term plan of the MR. In parallel to preparing a full technical design report, the technical designs of hardware upgrades using new technologies and all accelerator components that are necessary to deliver the 1.3-MW beam power are summarized and consolidated in this short paper. Further, this paper includes beam dynamics studies and simulation results for handling $3.3\times 10^{14}$ protons per pulse (ppp) without significant beam loss in the ring and transport lines. The Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) project has recently been approved, and construction has started; the MR upgrade and HK project will work together efficiently to study the CP violation.

CP-Violating Neutrino Nonstandard Interactions in Long-Baseline-Accelerator Data.

Neutrino oscillations in matter provide a unique probe of new physics. Leveraging the advent of neutrino appearance data from NOvA and T2K in recent years, we investigate the presence of CP-violating neutrino nonstandard interactions in the oscillation data. We first show how to very simply approximate the expected NSI parameters to resolve differences between two long-baseline appearance experiments analytically. Then, by combining recent NOvA and T2K data, we find a tantalizing hint of CP-violating NSI preferring a new complex phase that is close to maximal: ϕ_{eμ} or ϕ_{eτ}≈3π/2 with |ε_{eμ}| or |ε_{eτ}|∼0.2. We then compare the results from long-baseline data to constraints from IceCube and COHERENT.

Nonstandard Neutrino Interactions as a Solution to the NOνA and T2K Discrepancy.

The latest data of the two long-baseline accelerator experiments NOνA and T2K, interpreted in the standard three-flavor scenario, display a discrepancy. A mismatch in the determination of the standard CP phase δ_{CP} extracted by the two experiments is evident in the normal neutrino mass ordering. While NOνA prefers values close to δ_{CP}∼0.8π, T2K identifies values of δ_{CP}∼1.4π. Such two estimates are in disagreement at more than 90%C.L. for 2degrees of freedom. We show that such a tension can be resolved if one hypothesizes the existence of complex neutral-current nonstandard interactions (NSIs) of the flavor changing type involving the e-μ or the e-τ sectors with couplings |ϵ_{eμ}|∼|ϵ_{eτ}|∼0.2. Remarkably, in the presence of such NSIs, both experiments point towards the same common value of the standard CP phase δ_{CP}∼3π/2. Our analysis also highlights an intriguing preference for maximal CP violation in the nonstandard sector with the NSI CP phases having best fit close to ϕ_{eμ}∼ϕ_{eτ}∼3π/2, hence pointing towards imaginary NSI couplings.

On long-baseline relative positioning with BDS-2/BDS-3/GPS data

BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) reached the global coverage in June 2020. To study the performance of the precise relative positioning using the BDS-3 alone and the improvement due to adding BDS-3 satellites to BDS-2 and GPS, this paper analysed the data of 033-039d provided by the MGEX in 2021. The fusion of BDS-2, BDS-3 and GPS data was conducted for static and dynamic high-precision long-baseline solution experiments. The influence of the individual BDS-2 / BDS-3 / GPS and by adding BDS-3 satellites to BDS-2 and GPS on precise relative positioning convergence speed and positioning accuracy were analyzed, respectively. The experimental results show that the current BDS-3 positioning performance (convergence speed and positioning accuracy) is similar to GPS, and the BDS-3 satellites effectively improve the positioning convergence speed upon BDS-2 and GPS. In the static positioning processing mode, with the aid of the BDS-3 satellites, the RMS (Root-Mean-Square) of the positioning errors using GPS only and the combination of BDS-2 and GPS was increased only by 20 % in the up direction, and for the BDS-2 system alone, the positioning accuracies in the E, N and U components were increased by 60%, 71% and 65%, respectively. In the dynamic positioning processing mode, after the addition of BDS-3 satellites, the positioning accuracies using GPS and GPS+BDS-2 in the E, N and U components were improved by about 15 %, 23 % and 23 %, respectively, and the BDS-2 positioning accuracies were improved by about 46 %, 38 % and 36 % in the E, N and U components, respectively.

Global oscillation data analysis on the 3\u03bd mixing without unitarity

We present results of a combined analysis in neutrino oscillations without unitarity assumption in the 3ν mixing picture. Constraints on neutrino mixing matrix elements are based on recent data from the reactor, solar and long-baseline accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments. The current data are consistent with the standard 3ν scheme. The precision on different matrix elements can be as good as a few percent at 3σ CL, and is mainly limited by the experimental statistical uncertainty. The νe related elements are the most precisely measured among all sectors with the uncertainties < 20%. The measured leptonic CP violation is very close to the one assuming the standard 3ν mixing. The deviations on normalization and the unitarity triangle closure are confined within mathcal{O} (10−3), mathcal{O} (10−2) and mathcal{O} (10−1), for νe, νμ and ντ sectors, respectively. We look forward to the next-generation neutrino oscillation experiments such as DUNE, T2HK, and JUNO, especially the precision measurements on ντ oscillations, to significantly improve the precision of unitarity test on the 3ν mixing matrix.

Neutrinos: Present and future of long baseline experiments

The results from two currently running long-baseline neutrino experiments T2K and NO[Formula: see text]A are presented, along with physics program for the next generation experiments — Hyper-K and DUNE. I will focus on hints and prospects of the discovery of CP violation in the leptonic sector.

On resolving the dark LMA solution at neutrino oscillation experiments

In presence of non standard interactions (NSI), the solar neutrino data is consistent with two solutions, one close to the standard LMA solution with sin2θ12 ≃ 0.31 and another with {sin}^2{theta}_{12}^Dsimeq 0.69left(=1-{sin}^2{theta}_{12}right) . The latter has been called the Dark LMA (DLMA) solution in the literature and essentially brings an octant degeneracy in the measurement of the mixing angle θ12. This θ12 octant degeneracy is hard to resolve via oscillations because of the existence of the so-called “generalised mass hierarchy degeneracy” of the neutrino mass matrix in presence of NSI. One might think that if the mass hierarchy is independently determined in a non-oscillation experiment such as neutrino-less double beta decay, one might be able to break the θ12 octant degeneracy. In this paper we study this in detail in the context of long-baseline experiments (Pμμ channel) as well as reactor experiments (Pee channel) and show that if we combine information from both long-baseline and reactor experiments we can find the correct octant and hence value of θ12. We elaborate the reasons for it and study the prospects of determining the θ12 octant using T2HK, DUNE and JUNO experiments. Of course, one would need information on the neutrino mass hierarchy as well.

Addendum to: Updated constraints on non-standard interactions from global analysis of oscillation data

In this addendum we re-assess the constraints on Non-Standard Interactions (NSI) from the global analysis of neutrino oscillation data after including the new results released since the publication of ref. [1], in particular those presented at the Neutrino2020 conference. The new data considered here includes the total energy spectrum and the day-night asymmetry of the 2970-day SK4 solar neutrino sample [2], as well as the latest results from long-baseline (LBL) experiments T2K [3, 4] and NOvA [5, 6]. In addition, we have updated the reactor experiments Double-Chooz [7, 8] to 1276/587 days of far/near detector data and RENO [9, 10] to 2908 days of exposure.

Recent three-flavor neutrino oscillation results from the NOvA experiment

NOvA is a long-baseline experiment studying primarily neutrino oscillations in the NuMI beam from Fermi National Laboratory (FNAL), USA. It consists of two functionally identical, finely granulated detectors which are separated by 810 km and situated 14.6 mrad off the NuMI beam axis from FNAL. By measuring the transition probabilities P(vμ → ve ) and P(vμ → vμ ), NOvA is able to probe the following parameters: , the mixing angle θ 23, the CP violating phase δCP and the neutrino mass hierarchy. This document is devoted to the latest NOvA measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters using neutrino and antineutrino disappearance and appearance obtained in 2020.

Unified model of nucleon elastic form factors and implications for neutrino-oscillation experiments

Precise knowledge of the nucleon's axial-current form factors is crucial for modeling GeV-scale neutrino-nucleus interactions. Unfortunately, the axial form factor remains insufficiently constrained to meet the precision requirements of upcoming long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiments. This work studies the nucleon's axial and vector form factors using the light-front approach to build a quark-diquark model of the nucleon with an explicit pion cloud. The light-front wave functions in both the quark and pion-baryon Fock spaces are first calibrated to existing experimental information on the nucleon's electromagnetic form factors and then used to predict the axial form factor. The resulting squared charge radius of the axial pseudovector form factor is predicted to be ${r}_{A}^{2}=0.29\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fm}}^{2}$, where the small error accounts for the model's parametric uncertainty. We use our form factor results to explore the (quasi)elastic scattering of neutrinos by (nuclei)nucleons, with the result that the widely implemented dipole ansatz is an inadequate approximation of the full form factor for modeling both processes. The approximation leads to a 5%--10% overestimation of the total cross section, depending on the (anti)neutrino energy. We project overestimations of similar size in the flux-averaged cross sections for the upcoming DUNE long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment.

Supernova neutrino detection in NOvA

The NOvA long-baseline neutrino experiment uses a pair of large, segmented, liquid-scintillator calorimeters to study neutrino oscillations, using GeV-scale neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. These detectors are also sensitive to the flux of neutrinos which are emitted during a core-collapse supernova through inverse beta decay interactions on carbon at energies of \U0001d4aa(10 MeV). This signature provides a means to study the dominant mode of energy release for a core-collapse supernova occurring in our galaxy. We describe the data-driven software trigger system developed and employed by the NOvA experiment to identify and record neutrino data from nearby galactic supernovae. This technique has been used by NOvA to self-trigger on potential core-collapse supernovae in our galaxy, with an estimated sensitivity reaching out to 10 kpc distance while achieving a detection efficiency of 23% to 49% for supernovae from progenitor stars with masses of 9.6 M⊙ to 27 M⊙, respectively.

First testing of the Hamamatsu R5912-02Mod photomultiplier tube at 4-bar pressure and cryogenic temperature

The Hamamatsu R5912-02Mod photomultiplier tube (PMT) will be used in the DUNE dual-phase module, a 10-kton fiducial volume liquid-argon time-projection chamber, which is one of the four projected far-detector modules of the DUNE long-baseline neutrino experiment. In the DUNE dual-phase module, the liquid argon places high pressure on the photo-detectors located at the bottom of the 14-m cryostat. Four Hamamatsu R5912-02Mod PMTs were tested at 4-bar absolute pressure and cryogenic temperature (in liquid nitrogen) for the first time. No mechanical or electrical damage is reported, validating the use of this PMT model in the DUNE dual-phase module and in other large scale cryogenic liquid detectors. The differences observed in their behavior are expected for the change in the PMT operating temperature.