Atmospheric Neutrinos and the Quest for Neutrino Oscillations

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Atmospheric Neutrinos andthe Quest for Neutrino
Oscillations
Hugh Gallagher Tufts University Feb. 19, 2003
Jefferson Lab

• Neutrino History
• Oscillations
• Atmospheric Neutrinos
• Soudan 2
• SuperKamiokande
• 4. Towards Precision
• 5. Conclusions

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Neutrinos Throughout The Ages
Neutrinos have proved to be a valuable probe of
the structure of matter and the nature of
electroweak interactions.
Observation confirmed (2000) DONUT Experiment
From LEP we know that Nn 3
Reines and Cowan First n detection 1956? (1995
Nobel Prize)
Brookhaven 2 n Experiment (Lederman, Schwartz,
Steinberger 1988 Nobel Prize)
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Neutrino History
Bubble chambers BNL, ANL, FNAL, CERN, Serpukhov

• hadronic weak currents
• observation of neutral currents
• cross section measurements

SN1987A n detection confirmed astrophysical
predictions!
1950
1990
1960
1970
1980
2000
counter experiments CDHS, CHARM, CHARM
II, CCFR, NuTEV

• high statistics (100k events)
• structure functions (F2, F3)
• parton universality
• sin2(qw)
• strange sea studies
• cross sections

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The MNS Matrix
In spite of their utility, many of the basic
properties of the neutrino remained unknown.
Do neutrinos have mass? Dirac or Majorana
particles?
mass states
weak states
MNS matrix the lepton analogue of the CKM
matrix for quarks. 3 mixing angles and 1 CP
violating phase.
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Searching for Oscillations
Dm2 and sin2(2q) are the physics we are after
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LSND and miniBoone
Hang on... with 3 mass states there are only 2
independent mass differences Dm2. Solar and
atmospheric oscillations have been confirmed by
multiple experiments. The accelerator evidence
(LSND) will be checked in the next year by the
miniBoone experiment at Fermilab.
nominal 2 year run
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The Solar Neutrino Problem Solved!
Kamland and SNO data have converged on the LMA
solution of the solar neutrino problem.
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The Neutrino World
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Atmospheric Neutrinos
Originally studied as a potential background for
underground proton decay experiments. First hint
of oscillations... 1986!
IMB collab.
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Oscillations with Atmospheric ns
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Flux Calculations

• Ingredients
• Primary cosmic ray flux
• (time-dependent)
• 2. Geomagnetic model
• 3. Hadronic interactions
• in the atmosphere

Flux of primary cosmic rays (from Gaisser and
Honda, Ann. Rev. Nuc. Part. Sci (2002))
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Flux Calculations (2)
overall uncertainty in the flux normalization is
20-25
The most robust prediction is that of the flavor
ratio nm / ne.
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Soudan 2
Constructed 1988-1993.
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The Detector
224 1m x 1m x 2.7 m modules
963 ton total mass
5.90 fiducial-kton yr exposure
The detector is surrounded by a 1700 m2 veto
shield which provides nearly 4p coverage for the
identification of charged particles entering /
exiting the detector cavern.
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A Module
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Event Pictures
contained events
nm
ne
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PCE Picture
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Rock events
Rock event sample- identified by presence of
shield hits.
The residual zero-hit background is calculated by
fitting contained event vertex-depth
distributions to a combination of rock and
neutrino Monte Carlo distributions.
Rock-muon associated background correction in the
hires sample is about 6.
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Event Categories
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Flavor Ratio

• We measure via the flavor ratio of ratios

MC null osc. R 1.0 if no osc

• Use all contained events having identified flavor
  (multiprongs events now included).
• Rraw 0.73 ? 0.10

Flavor tag

• De-convolve using Flavor Identification Matrix

True flavor
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Monte Carlo
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Production Heights
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Azimuthal Angles

• Observe azimuthal symmetry for both ?e and ??
  fluxes
• - as expected.

• The ?? is uniformly depleted relative to null
  oscillation expectation.

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Zenith Angle
Events/0.25
Events/0.25
up
cos?z
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Data vs. No Oscillations
Events/0.5
Events/0.4
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Data vs. Oscillations
sin2(2?) 1.0
Events/0.4
Events/0.4
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Feldman-Cousins
We assume nm ? nt ne is unaffected. For
points ( i, j ) over the physical region of the
( sin2(2Q)i , log10Dm2j ) plane, we do a fit of
the oscillation expectation to our data at each
point using Maximum-Likelihood (Ldata)ij
L(sin2(2Q)i , log10 Dm2j fn ) where fn ?
flux normalization (Bartol '96 atm. flux). We
find (Ldata)min , and plot (DLdata)ij (Ldata)ij
- (Ldata)min
From an analysis carried out by Mayly Sanchez.
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Feldman-Cousins
At each of 2000 points ( i, j ) ( sin2(2Q)i ,
log10Dm2j ) in the physical region, we run 1000
simulated experiments. Find (DL90)ij such that
(DLsim)ijlt(DL90)ij for 90 of the experiments at
( i, j ). The surface defined by local DL90 over
the oscillation plane
DL90
Sin2(2Q)
log10Dm2
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All Data Plot
Hi-Res nm CC
PCE nm CC
Lo-Res nm CC
Contained ne CC
Lo-Res Multiprongs
NC / Flavor Ambiguous
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Results
Best Fit ?m2 0.007 eV2 sin22?
0.98 fn(data/mc) 0.90 MC ? Bartol '96
Dm2 eV2
sin2(2?)
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Battistoni 3D flux
Best Fit ?m2 0.007 eV2 sin22?
0.98 fn(data/mc) 1.05 MC ? Battistoni 02
Dm2 eV2
?2/dof34.7/28
sin2(2?)
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SuperK
50 kton (22.5 fiducial volume) 11,146 PMTs in the
inner tank 1885 PMTs in outer region 79.4
kton-yr data sample from SuperK I Measure fully
contained n, partially contained n, and
throughgoing muons.
SuperK I 4/1996 7/2001 (Accident in Nov. 2001
destroyed 6777 inner PMTs). Rebuilt 11/2001
10/2002 SuperK II 10/2002 ? now reduced
PMT coverage SuperK III before JHF
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(No Transcript)
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SuperK Flavor Ratios
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SuperK Zenith Angles
ne data are consistent with expectation. nm
are disappearing (in a way consistent with
oscillations) nm ? what??
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SuperK nm ? ?
nm ? ne ruled out by ne data nm ? nt or nm ?
ns?
t are hard to identify. Ethreshold 3.5
GeV decays in 3 x 10-13 sec primarily
to hadrons (65)
Look for t-like events (neural networks
2s) NC events (up vs. down) matter effects
(up going)
nt and ns propagate differently through matter
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All Experiments
Serendipity!
That factors completed unrelated to neutrino
physics allowed us to observe effects in solar
and atmospheric neutrinos that were nearly
maximal.
size of earth ? Dm2 10-3 eV2 solar density,
earth-sun distance ? Dm2 10-5 eV2.
For 3 massive neutrinos there are two
independent Dm2.
There is still one loose end ...
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LSND
A similar beam dump experiment, KARMEN, failed to
see a signal.
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miniBoone at Fermilab
8 GeV booster protons ? 1 GeV n 12 m sphere
filled with mineral oil 0.5 km from source Expect
huge signal (1000s of events) Now running
If miniBoone confims LSND things will get very
interesting!
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All Experiment Allowed Region
If we ignore LSND, what have we learned, and what
questions remain?
Dm12 10-5 eV2
nm
ne
Dm23 10-3 eV2
nt

• Better precision on parameters
• Strictly speaking, no one has yet observed
  Oscillations
• What are the mixing modes nm ? nt or nm ? ns?
• q13 and dCP in the MNS matrix
• Normal or Inverted mass hierarchy
• Are neutrinos degenerate? measuring mn not Dm2.
• Majorana or Dirac particles?

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The Age of Precision
Neutrino Oscillation experiments to this point
have largely relied on natural neutrino sources
(if you consider nuclear reactors natural).
Limited ability to perform cross-checks. Low
statistics Results ultimately limited by
knowledge of production mechanisms L, E not
optimal for observation of oscillation signatures
The new era relies on accelerators (Fermilab,
KEK, CERN, ???) to create high-intensity, well
understood neutrino beams aimed at distant
detectors optimized for particular oscillation
signatures.
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MINOS (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search)
MINOS (Fermilab to Minnesota) L 730 km 2004
near detector
far detector
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NuMI Beam
zoom lens Vary the relative distances of the
source and focusing elements

• Expected CC Events Rates in Minos 5kt detector
• High 16,000 ev/yr
• Medium 7,000 ev/yr
• Low 2,500 ev/yr

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MINOS
408 / 484 planes currently installed
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MINOS Construction

• MINOS construction will complete by summer
• Outfitting at FNAL and beam installation this
  year and next.
• Beam Nov 2004.

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MINOS Physics Tests
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MINOS Status
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The MINOS Mural
The Soudan Underground Laboratory is operated
partly under the auspices of the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources. The MINOS
hall will be part of a special underground
scientific tour open to the public.
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Outreach
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K2K (KeK to Kamiokande)
First long baseline experiment to run! KEK 12 GeV
PS ? 1 GeV n 1.1 ms beam spill every 2.2 s
monitor pions and muons to predict beam near
detector similar to far (SuperK) Future 50 GeV
JHF ? 2 orders of magnitude higher flux!
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K2K
P(rateshape) 99.3 CL
from J. Wilkes, hep-ex/0212035
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CERN OPERA
nm ? nt appearance at atmospheric Dm2

• Emulsion bricks and electronic tracking
• Automated scanning finds events in emulsion
• Search for t decay (similar to DONUT)
• Very low backgrounds
• Signal strongly depends on true value of
• Dm2. (20 nt events measured at
• Dm2 3.5 10-3 eV2 in five years)

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The Future Measuring q13
Look for nm ? ne at the atmospheric neutrino Dm2.
(Current limits are around 1) Dm210-3 means we
want L/E 103 (km/GeV) Backgrounds come
from ne in the beam (0.7) NC events t ? e
decay (17)
For the NuMI beam to Soudan 1.27Dm2L/E p/2
?E 1.5 GeV below tau threshold!
NC

• Requires
• A big detector
• good pattern recognition (e/p0)
• more neutrinos in the signal region!
• less neutrinos out of the signal region!

ne
A. Para
signal
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NuMI Off-Axis
On axis En0.43Ep
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NuMI Off-Axis
A. Para, M. Szleper, hep-ex/0110032
Minnesota 730 km Canada 990 km
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Nu Factories

• High intensity ne, nm from muon storage rings
• highly collimated beams
• well understood beams
• both nm and ne
• ne and ne to study matter effects

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Future Opportunities??
Because of the renewed interest in these
low-energy phenomena, people are investigating
the opportunities the NuMI beam provides for a
dedicated high-statistics neutrino scattering
experiment.
...a proposal will be presented to FNAL this year
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NuMI n Scattering Experiment

• Better understanding of low energy cross sections
• parton distributions in the high x region
• Bloom-Gilman Duality resonance/DIS overlap
• sin2qw via NC/CC and ds/dy from n-e scattering
• measurement of mc and Vcd
• nuclear effects involving neutrinos
• strange particle production
• contribution of the strange quark to the spin of
  the proton
• comparable to JLab studies... but with neutrinos

• Detector ideas are being developed
• variable A targets
• good granularity
• few tons of detector ? millions of events.

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Conclusions
We are entering a new era of experimentation
where neutrino beams will be used to probe the
physics of the lepton sector with high precision.

• Observing Oscillations
• Demonstrating oscillation modes (appearance
  experiments)
• Resolving mass hierarchy
• q13
• CP violation in the lepton sector

Theories beyond the Standard Model will have to
explain the smallness of the neutrino mass.
Precision measurements of the lepton sector of
the Standard Model provide valuable
constraints on the form these new theories can
take!