A search for the last neutrino flavour mixing angle with the T2K experiment and development of novel detector technique for safeguards application
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Physics
Abstract
In the last ten years a combination of experiments has demonstrated one of the most striking discoveries in the neutrino sector: neutrinos have mass and they oscillate. This is the first compelling evidence for a phenomena that is not described by the standard model and which has already had great consequences for astrophysics and cosmology. It might also bring us further to the discovery of CP violation in the lepton sector in a similar way that CP violation is present in the quark sector. This will be of utmost importance as CP violation is a mechanism believed to be at the origin of matter and anti-matter asymmetry in the universe but too small in the quark sector alone to explain all of it. Accessing CP violation in the neutrino sector is only possible if oscillation of muon neutrino to electron neutrino takes place. This research has two key objectives: 1. to search for the oscillations of muon neutrino to electron neutrino using the T2K experiment in Japan; and 2. to lead the development of an anti-neutrino monitor for safeguards applications based on T2K detector techniques. T2K is a long baseline neutrino experiment, whose main goal is to look for appearance of electron neutrinos in an oscillated beam of muon neutrinos. The muon neutrino beam is created at the J-PARC facility in Tokai (north-east Japan) and detected 295 km away in the large water Cherenkov detector Super-Kamiokande in the Kamioka mine. This research focuses on measurement of neutrino interactions at the T2K near detector before the beam has had time to oscillate. These measurement will be used to characterise background interactions at Super-Kamiokande in order to maximise our chance of discovering this oscillation. Technology based used at the T2K near detector has been found to be well suited for application in nuclear reactor monitoring. Reactor cores are powerful neutrino sources and give precise information about the reactor operation. The use of high performance, practical and cost-effective neutrino detector has been identified as being well suited for future implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguard procedures. This research would lead the way in the development of a device capable of performing this task which would be the first practical application of neutrino physics.
People |
ORCID iD |
Antonin Vacheret (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Abe K
(2015)
Measurement of the ? µ charged current quasielastic cross section on carbon with the T2K on-axis neutrino beam
in Physical Review D
Abe K
(2014)
Measurement of the inclusive electron neutrino charged current cross section on carbon with the T2K near detector.
in Physical review letters
Abe K
(2014)
Precise measurement of the neutrino mixing parameter ?23 from muon neutrino disappearance in an off-axis beam.
in Physical review letters
Abe K
(2014)
Measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current interaction cross section by observing nuclear deexcitation ? rays
in Physical Review D
Abe K
(2017)
First measurement of the muon neutrino charged current single pion production cross section on water with the T2K near detector
in Physical Review D
Abe K
(2014)
Measurement of the inclusive ? µ charged current cross section on iron and hydrocarbon in the T2K on-axis neutrino beam
in Physical Review D
Abe K
(2016)
Measurement of the muon neutrino inclusive charged-current cross section in the energy range of 1-3 GeV with the T2K INGRID detector
in Physical Review D
Abe K
(2015)
Measurements of neutrino oscillation in appearance and disappearance channels by the T2K experiment with 6.6 × 1 0 20 protons on target
in Physical Review D
Abe K
(2016)
Measurement of Coherent p^{+} Production in Low Energy Neutrino-Carbon Scattering.
in Physical review letters
Abe K
(2013)
T2K neutrino flux prediction
in Physical Review D
Description | we have discovered in 2012 that a neutrino which comes in three type (called flavour): electron, muon and tau neutrino do oscillate between all three flavours. The T2K experiment did it by producing a beam of pure muon neutrino using the JPARC accelerator and directed it to a large neutrino detector several hundred kilometres away. Electron neutrino were detected in time with the beam which demonstrated the oscillation phenomenon. The effect was measured to be quite large which opens the door for measuring the CP violation phase, a quantity that could explain one of great mystery of the universe:the origin of the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. This research also lead to the development of a novel technology to detect antineutrinos which can be used also as an alternative to Helium-3 for neutron detection. This new detector development is being pursued as part of a new project called MARS. the antineutrino detection technology has since then been demonstrated and is now proposed to be used as part of a new experiment called SoLid to search for a new form of matter called sterile neutrino. |
Exploitation Route | design of new experiments to search for CP violation use technology for applications in other fields. |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Security and Diplomacy |
URL | http://t2k-experiment.org |
Description | this fellowship has provided the space to conduct new research in Science and in knowledge exchange. |
First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
Sector | Other |
Description | ERC Consolidator grant |
Amount | € 1,800,000 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 682474 SOLID |
Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 06/2016 |
End | 06/2021 |
Description | SoLid |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Department | School of Social and Community Medicine |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The team developed the front-end and testing of the read out electronics. It also provided the DAQ to acquire and store the data of the prototype system |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partner provided the back-end electronics and |
Impact | Partnership resulted in key funding for the experiment |
Start Year | 2014 |
Title | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR RADIATION DETECTION |
Description | Embodiments of the invention provide a radiation detector, comprising a convertor comprising an inorganic scintillator for absorbing incident neutrons and outputting photons, a light collecting body arranged in relation to a wavelength shifting fibre for receiving photons from the convertor and directing the photons to the wavelength shifting fibre, and one or more photo-detectors arranged to receive photons from the wavelength shifting fibre and output electrical signals in response thereto. |
IP Reference | WO2013027069 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2013 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | This patent is the starting point of the MARS project to develop cost-effective neutron detector as well as the pursuit of a practical system to monitor antineutrino close to reactors for safeguards. Development of the technology has been reported to conferences (see publications). The subsequent development of an antineutrino detector as led to a new experiment called SoLid to search for a new form of matter at short baseline of a research reactor. |