arXiv subjects

Kamiokande Collaboration

Publications and source records attributed to Kamiokande Collaboration.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Search for Proton Decay via p -> e^+ pi^0 and p -> mu^+ pi^0 in a Large Water Cherenkov Detector

We have searched for proton decays via p -> e^+ pi^0 and p -> mu^+ pi^0 using data from a 91.7 kiloton year exposure of Super-Kamiokande-I and a 49.2 kiloton year exposure of Super-Kamiokande-II. No candidate events were observed with expected backgrounds induced by atmospheric neutrinos of 0.3 events for each decay mode. From these results, we set lower limits on the partial lifetime of 8.2$\times10^{33}$ and 6.6$\times10^{33}$ years at 90% confidence level for p -> e^+ pi^0 and p -> mu^+ pi^0 modes, respectively.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2008

First Study of Neutron Tagging with a Water Cherenkov Detector

A first study of neutron tagging is conducted in Super--Kamiokande, a 50,000-ton water Cherenkov detector. The tagging efficiencies of thermal neutrons are evaluated in a 0.2 % GdCl$_{3}$-water solution and pure water. They are determined to be, respectively, 66.7 % for events above 3 MeV and 20 % with corresponding background probabilities of 2 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ and 3 $\times$ 10$^{-2}$. This newly developed technique may enable water Cherenkov detectors to identify $\bar ν_{e}$'s geological or astrophysical sources as well as those produced by commercial reactors via the delayed coincidence scheme.

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arXiv2008

Search for Matter-Dependent Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations in Super-Kamiokande

We consider muon neutrino to tau neutrino oscillations in the context of the Mass Varying Neutrino (MaVaN) model, where the neutrino mass can vary depending on the electron density along the flight path of the neutrino. Our analysis assumes a mechanism with dependence only upon the electron density, hence ordinary matter density, of the medium through which the neutrino travels. Fully-contained, partially-contained and upward-going muon atmospheric neutrino data from the Super--Kamiokande detector, taken from the entire SK--I period of 1489 live days, are compared to MaVaN model predictions. We find that, for the case of 2-flavor oscillations, and for the specific models tested, oscillation independent of electron density is favored over density dependence. Assuming maximal mixing, the best-fit case and the density-independent case do not differ significantly.

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arXiv2007

Study of TeV Neutrinos with Upward Showering Muons in Super-Kamiokande

A subset of neutrino-induced upward through-going muons in the Super-Kamiokande detector consists of high energy muons which lose energy through radiative processes such as bremsstrahlung, e^{+} e^{-} pair production and photonuclear interactions. These ``upward showering muons'' comprise an event sample whose mean parent neutrino energy is approximately 1 TeV. We show that the zenith angle distribution of upward showering muons is consistent with negligible distortion due to neutrino oscillations, as expected of such a high-energy neutrino sample. We present astronomical searches using these high energy events, such as those from WIMP annihilations in the Sun, Earth and Galactic Center, some suspected point sources, as well as searches for diffuse flux from the interstellar medium.

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arXiv2007

Search for Supernova Neutrino Bursts at Super-Kamiokande

The result of a search for neutrino bursts from supernova explosions using the Super-Kamiokande detector is reported. Super-Kamiokande is sensitive to core-collapse supernova explosions via observation of their neutrino emissions. The expected number of events comprising such a burst is ~10^4 and the average energy of the neutrinos is in few tens of MeV range in the case of a core-collapse supernova explosion at the typical distance in our galaxy (10 kiloparsecs); this large signal means that the detection efficiency anywhere within our galaxy and well past the Magellanic Clouds is 100%. We examined a data set which was taken from May, 1996 to July, 2001 and from December, 2002 to October, 2005 corresponding to 2589.2 live days. However, there is no evidence of such a supernova explosion during the data-taking period. The 90% C.L. upper limit on the rate of core-collapse supernova explosions out to distances of 100 kiloparsecs is found to be 0.32 SN/year.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Search for Diffuse Astrophysical Neutrino Flux Using Ultra-High-Energy Upward-Going Muons in Super-Kamiokande I

Many astrophysical models predict a diffuse flux of high-energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei and other extra-galactic sources. At muon energies above 1 TeV, the upward-going muon flux induced by neutrinos from active galactic nuclei is expected to exceed the flux due to atmospheric neutrinos. We have performed a search for this astrophysical neutrino flux by looking for upward-going muons in the highest energy data sample from the Super-Kamiokande detector using 1679.6 live days of data. We found one extremely high energy upward-going muon event, compared with an expected atmospheric neutrino background of 0.46 plus or minus 0.23 events. Using this result, we set an upper limit on the diffuse flux of upward-going muons due to neutrinos from astrophysical sources in the muon energy range 3.16-100 TeV.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Search for Neutral Q-balls in Super-Kamiokande II

A search for Q-balls induced groups of successive contained events has been carried out in Super-Kamiokande II with 541.7 days of live time. Neutral Q-balls would emit pions when colliding with nuclei, generating a signal of successive contained pion events along a track. No candidate for successive contained event groups has been found in Super-Kamiokande II, so upper limits on the possible flux of such Q-balls have been obtained.

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arXiv2006

A Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Flux Consistent with Tau Neutrino Appearance

A search for the appearance of tau neutrinos from \mutau oscillations in the atmospheric neutrinos has been performed using 1489.2 days of atmospheric neutrino data from the Super-Kamiokande-I experiment. A best fit tau neutrino appearance signal of 138 $\pm$ 48 (stat.) $^{+15}_{-32}$ (sys.) events is obtained with an expectation of 78 $\pm$ 26 (sys.). The hypothesis of no tau neutrino appearance is disfavored by 2.4 sigma.

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arXiv2006

High energy neutrino astronomy using upward-going muons in Super-Kamiokande-I

We present the results from several studies used to search for astrophysical sources of high-energy neutrinos using the Super-Kamiokande-I (April 1996 to July 2001) neutrino-induced upward-going muon data. The data set consists of 2359 events with minimum energy 1.6 GeV, of which 1892 are through-going and 467 stop within the detector. The results of several independent analyses are presented, including searches for point sources using directional and temporal information and a search for signatures of cosmic-ray interactions with the interstellar medium in the upward-going muons. No statistically significant evidence for point sources or any diffuse flux from the plane of the galaxy was found, so specific limits on fluxes from likely point sources are calculated. The 90% C.L. upper limits on upward-going muon flux from astronomical sources which are located in the southern hemisphere and always under the horizon for Super-Kamiokande are 1~4x10^{-15} cm^{-2} s^{-1}.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Solar neutrino measurements in Super-Kamiokande-I

The details of Super--Kamiokande--I's solar neutrino analysis are given. Solar neutrino measurement in Super--Kamiokande is a high statistics collection of $^8$B solar neutrinos via neutrino-electron scattering. The analysis method and results of the 1496 day data sample are presented. The final oscillation results for the data are also presented.

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arXiv2005

A Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillation Parameters by Super-Kamiokande I

We present a combined analysis of fully-contained, partially-contained and upward-going muon atmospheric neutrino data from a 1489 day exposure of the Super--Kamiokande detector. The data samples span roughly five decades in neutrino energy, from 100 MeV to 10 TeV. A detailed Monte Carlo comparison is described and presented. The data is fit to the Monte Carlo expectation, and is found to be consistent with neutrino oscillations of $ν_μ\leftrightarrow ν_τ$ with $\sin^22θ> 0.92$ and $1.5\times 10^{-3} < Δm^2 < 3.4\times 10^{-3}{\rm eV}^2$ at 90% confidence level.

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arXiv2005

Search for nucleon decay via modes favored by supersymmetric grand unification models in Super-Kamiokande-I

We report the results for nucleon decay searches via modes favored by supersymmetric grand unified models in Super-Kamiokande. Using 1489 days of full Super-Kamiokande-I data, we searched for $p \to \barν K^+$, $n \to \barν K^0$, $p \to μ^+ K^0$ and $p \to e^+ K^0$ modes. We found no evidence for nucleon decay in any of these modes. We set lower limits of partial nucleon lifetime 2.3$\times10^{33}$, 1.3$\times10^{32}$, 1.3$\times10^{33}$ and 1.0$\times10^{33}$ years at 90% confidence level for $p \to \barν K^+$, $n \to \barν K^0$, $p \to μ^+ K^0$ and $p \to e^+ K^0$ modes, respectively. These results give a strong constraint on supersymmetric grand unification models.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2004

Search for Dark Matter WIMPs using Upward Through-going Muons in Super-Kamiokande

We present the results of indirect searches for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with 1679.6 live days of data from the Super-Kamiokande detector using neutrino-induced upward through-going muons. The search is performed by looking for an excess of high energy muon neutrinos from WIMP annihilations in the Sun, the core of the Earth, and the Galactic Center, as compared to the number expected from the atmospheric neutrino background. No statistically significant excess was seen. We calculate flux limits in various angular cones around each of the above celestial objects. We obtain conservative model-independent upper limits on WIMP-nucleon cross-section as a function of WIMP mass and compare these results with the corresponding results from direct dark matter detection experiments.

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arXiv2004

Evidence for an oscillatory signature in atmospheric neutrino oscillation

Muon neutrino disappearance probability as a function of neutrino flight length L over neutrino energy E was studied. A dip in the L/E distribution was observed in the data, as predicted from the sinusoidal flavor transition probability of neutrino oscillation. The observed L/E distribution constrained nu_mu <-> nu_tau neutrino oscillation parameters; 1.9x10^-3 < Delta m^2 < 3.0x10^-3 eV^2 and \sin^2(2theta) > 0.90 at 90% confidence level.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2004

Limit On the Neutrino Magnetic Moment Using 1496 Days of Super-Kamiokande-i Solar Neutrino Data

A search for a non-zero neutrino magnetic moment has been conducted using 1496 live days of solar neutrino data from {\SK}. Specifically, we searched for distortions to the energy spectrum of recoil electrons arising from magnetic scattering due to a non-zero neutrino magnetic moment. In the absence of clear signal, we found $μ_ν \leq 3.6 \times 10^{-10}$ $μ_{B}$ at 90% C.L. by fitting to the Super-Kamiokande day/night spectra. The fitting took into account the effect of neutrino oscillation on the shapes of energy spectra. With additional information from other solar neutrino and KamLAND experiments constraining the oscillation region, a limit of $μ_ν \leq 1.1 \times 10^{-10}$ $μ_{B}$ at 90% C.L. was obtained.

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arXiv2003

Precise Measurement of the Solar Neutrino Day/Night and Seasonal Variation in Super-Kamiokande-I

The time variation of the elastic scattering rate of solar neutrinos with electrons in Super-Kamiokande-I was fit to the variations expected from active two-neutrino oscillations. The best fit in the Large Mixing Angle solution has a mixing angle of tan^2theta=0.55 and a mass squared difference of Deltam^2=6.3times10^-5eV^2 between the two neutrino mass eigenstates. The fitted day/night asymmetry of -1.8+-1.6(stat)+1.3-1.2(syst)% has improved statistical precision over previous measurements and agrees well with the expected asymmetry of -2.1%.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2002

Search for Supernova Relic Neutrinos at Super-Kamiokande

A search for the relic neutrinos from all past core-collapse supernovae was conducted using 1496 days of data from the Super-Kamiokande detector. This analysis looked for electron-type anti-neutrinos that had produced a positron with an energy greater than 18 MeV. In the absence of a signal, 90% C.L. upper limits on the total flux were set for several theoretical models; these limits ranged from 20 to 130 nu_e bar cm^-2 s^-1. Additionally, an upper bound of 1.2 nu_e bar cm^-2 s^-1 was set for the supernova relic neutrino flux in the energy region E_nu > 19.3 MeV.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2002

Determination of Solar Neutrino Oscillation Parameters using 1496 Days of Super-Kamiokande-I Data

A number of different fits to solar neutrino mixing and mass square difference were performed using 1496 days of Super-Kamiokande-I's solar neutrino data. These data select two allowed areas at large neutrino mixing when combined with either the solar $^8$B flux prediction of the standard solar model or the SNO interaction rate measurements. A global fit combining SK data with the solar neutrino interaction rates measured by Homestake, SNO, Gallex/GNO and SAGE prefers a single allowed area, the Large Mixing Angle solution, at the 98.9% confidence level. The mass square difference $Δm^2$ between the two mass eigenstates ranges from about 3 to $19\times10^{-5}$eV$^2$, while the mixing angle $θ$ is in the range of $\tan^2θ\approx$0.25--0.65.

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