Using the T2K near detector data to constrain the neutrino oscillation parameters

The T2K experiment is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment consisting of three main parts: the muon neutrino beam produced by the J-PARC accelerator on the east coast of Japan, a suite of near detectors 280 m downstream of the beam production target, and a far detector 295 km away near the west coast of Japan. The information from the near detectors are used to characterise the unoscillated muon neutrino beam. The resulting information is then used in order to extract the oscillation parameters using the data from the far detector. The off-axis near detector, ND280, samples the beam at the same off-axis angle as the far detector, Super-Kamiokande (SK). Data from the ND280 is used to reduce the systematic uncertainty in the beam flux and the neutrino interaction cross sections by a factor of ~3. This yields a much more precise set of model parameters against which to test the data collected at SK, and therefore results in a significant improvement in the precision of the measured oscillation parameters.

Adam will be working on the ND280 fit to the data and will use that to constrain the model parameters. He will liaise closely with the oscillation analysis group and the rest of the ND280 fitting group. He will likely begin by developing a new sample for the fit that will help to constrain parameters to which the fit is not currently sensitive. He will learn to run the software that performs the fit, and analyse the effect of his new sample on the model parameters. He may also help with the commissioning of the ND280 electromagnetic calorimeter after the T2K shutdown (present - end 2022) at which point the ND280 will be upgraded with some new detectors.