SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 1211.0469

The T2K Neutrino Flux Prediction

Abstract

The Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment studies neutrino oscillations using an off-axis muon neutrino beam with a peak energy of about 0.6 GeV that originates at the J-PARC accelerator facility. Interactions of the neutrinos are observed at near detectors placed at 280 m from the production target and at the far detector -- Super-Kamiokande (SK) -- located 295 km away. The flux prediction is an essential part of the successful prediction of neutrino interaction rates at the T2K detectors and is an important input to T2K neutrino oscillation and cross section measurements. A FLUKA and GEANT3 based simulation models the physical processes involved in the neutrino production, from the interaction of primary beam protons in the T2K target, to the decay of hadrons and muons that produce neutrinos. The simulation uses proton beam monitor measurements as inputs. The modeling of hadronic interactions is re-weighted using thin target hadron production data, including recent charged pion and kaon measurements from the NA61/SHINE experiment. For the first T2K analyses the uncertainties on the flux prediction are evaluated to be below 15% near the flux peak. The uncertainty on the ratio of the flux predictions at the far and near detectors is less than 2% near the flux peak.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

T2K Collaboration, K. Abe, N. Abgrall, H. Aihara, T. Akiri, J. B. Albert, C. Andreopoulos, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, T. Ariga, S. Assylbekov, D. Autiero, M. Barbi, G. J. Barker, G. Barr, M. Bass, M. Batkiewicz, F. Bay, S. W. Bentham, V. Berardi, B. E. Berger, S. Berkman, I. Bertram, D. Beznosko, S. Bhadra, F. d. M. Blaszczyk, A. Blondel, C. Bojechko, S. Boyd, A. Bravar, C. Bronner, D. G. Brook-Roberge, N. Buchanan, R. G. Calland, J. Caravaca Rodriguez, S. L. Cartwright, R. Castillo, M. G. Catanesi, A. Cervera, D. Cherdack, G. Christodoulou, A. Clifton, J. Coleman, S. J. Coleman, G. Collazuol, K. Connolly, A. Curioni, A. Dabrowska, I. Danko, R. Das, S. Davis, M. Day, J. P. A. M. de Andre, P. de Perio, G. De Rosa, T. Dealtry, C. Densham, F. Di Lodovico, S. Di Luise, J. Dobson, T. Duboyski, F. Dufour, J. Dumarchez, S. Dytman, M. Dziewiecki, M. Dziomba, S. Emery, A. Ereditato, L. Escudero, L. S. Esposito, A. J. Finch, E. Frank, M. Friend, Y. Fujii, Y. Fukuda, V. Galymov, A. Gaudin, S. Giffin, C. Giganti, K. Gilje, T. Golan, J. J. Gomez-Cadenas, M. Gonin, N. Grant, D. Gudin, P. Guzowski, D. R. Hadley, A. Haesler, M. D. Haigh, D. Hansen, T. Hara, M. Hartz, T. Hasegawa, N. C. Hastings, Y. Hayato, C. Hearty, R. L. Helmer, J. Hignight, A. Hillairet, A. Himmel. 2012-11-02. The T2K Neutrino Flux Prediction. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.87.012001

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Production of Light Nuclei and Hypernuclei in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We review recent STAR and ALICE measurements of light-nucleus and hypernucleus yields, femtoscopic correlations, and collective flow presented at SQM 2026. Statistical-hadronization calculations provide a useful baseline for integrated yields but do not simultaneously describe all measured light-nucleus ratios across collision energies and system sizes. For bound states with mass number $A<4$, current coalescence calculations provide a broadly consistent description of yields, femtoscopic correlations, and collective flow, although the quantitative hypertriton comparison depends on the assumed few-body wave function. The suppressed production of resonant $^{4}$Li relative to compact $^{4}$He indicates an effect of nuclear structure and late-stage dynamics. However, the quantitative model comparison also depends on the treatment of feed-down from unstable states. In high-multiplicity $p$+$p$ collisions, pion-deuteron femtoscopy further indicates that most observed (anti)deuterons are formed through nucleon fusion after strong decays of short-lived resonances. Taken together, these measurements show that production chronology and internal nuclear structure leave measurable imprints on the physics observables.

hep-ex

Search for the process $e^+e^-\to f_1(1285)$ at the SND detector

In the experiment with the SND detector at the VEPP-2000 $e^+e^-$ collider, a search is performed for the direct production of the $C$-even $f_1(1285)$ resonance in $e^+e^-$ collisions. The analysis is based on data with an integrated luminosity of about 200 pb$^{-1}$, accumulated in the center-of-mass energy range of 1.14--1.46 GeV, of which about 72 pb$^{-1}$ were recorded near the maximum of the $f_1(1285)$ resonance. The $f_1(1285)$ production cross section at the resonance maximum $\sigma(e^+e^-\to f_1)=(31\pm 13\pm 2)$ pb and the branching fraction $B(f_1(1285)\to e^+e^-)=(3.5\pm 1.4\pm 0.3)\times 10^{-9}$ have been measured. The significance of the observation of the $e^+e^-\to f_1(1285)$ process is $2.5\sigma$. Since the significance is low, we also present the upper limits at the 90% confidence level: $\sigma(e^+e^-\to f_1)<48\mbox{ pb}$ and $B(f_1(1285)\to e^+e^-)<5.4\times 10^{-9}$.

hep-ex

Projected Sensitivity to Slow Muonphilic Dark Matter with Accelerator Muon Beams

The nature of dark matter (DM) remains one of the most enduring open questions in modern physics, and muonphilic DM has emerged as a promising scenario that complements traditional DM candidates. Following the recently established cosmic-ray muon scattering approach, we investigate the sensitivity for probing slow muonphilic DM with accelerator muon beams. A Geant4-based simulation framework is developed, incorporating the detector geometry from the PKMu muon tomography system and a dedicated elastic $\mu$-DM scattering process. The projected sensitivity is found to be largely insensitive to both the beam energy and the transverse beam size when the beam is fully contained within the detector acceptance. For a benchmark beam intensity of $10^5/\rm{s}$, the simulated pure-muon beam surpasses the existing cosmic-ray limit of $1.61\times10^{-17}$ cm$^2$ at $m_{\rm DM}=1$ GeV within approximately 11 seconds. A realistic muon beam phase-space distribution based on simulations for the High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) is also implemented, yielding projected limits that improve upon the cosmic-ray results by nearly two orders of magnitude in a one-day exposure. These results demonstrate that a beam-muon scattering experiment offers a robust and promising route toward significantly improved sensitivity to slow muonphilic DM.

hep-ex