arXiv subjects

Y. Koshio

Publications and source records attributed to Y. Koshio.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Solar neutrino results in Super-Kamiokande-III

The results of the third phase of the Super-Kamiokande solar neutrino measurement are presented and compared to the first and second phase results. With improved detector calibrations, a full detector simulation, and improved analysis methods, the systematic uncertainty on the total neutrino flux is estimated to be ?2.1%, which is about two thirds of the systematic uncertainty for the first phase of Super-Kamiokande. The observed 8B solar flux in the 5.0 to 20 MeV total electron energy region is 2.32+/-0.04 (stat.)+/-0.05 (sys.) *10^6 cm^-2sec^-1, in agreement with previous measurements. A combined oscillation analysis is carried out using SK-I, II, and III data, and the results are also combined with the results of other solar neutrino experiments. The best-fit oscillation parameters are obtained to be sin^2 θ12 = 0.30+0.02-0.01(tan^2 θ12 = 0.42+0.04 -0.02) and Δm2_21 = 6.2+1.1-1.9 *10^-5eV^2. Combined with KamLAND results, the best-fit oscillation parameters are found to be sin^2 θ12 = 0.31+/-0.01(tan^2 θ12 = 0.44+/-0.03) and Δm2_21 = 7.6?0.2*10^-5eV^2 . The 8B neutrino flux obtained from global solar neutrino experiments is 5.3+/-0.2(stat.+sys.)*10^6cm^-2s^-1, while the 8B flux becomes 5.1+/-0.1(stat.+sys.)*10^6cm^-2s^-1 by adding KamLAND result. In a three-flavor analysis combining all solar neutrino experiments, the upper limit of sin^2 θ13 is 0.060 at 95% C.L.. After combination with KamLAND results, the upper limit of sin^2 θ13 is found to be 0.059 at 95% C.L..

hep-ex↗

arXiv2012

Borexino calibrations: Hardware, Methods, and Results

Borexino was the first experiment to detect solar neutrinos in real-time in the sub-MeV region. In order to achieve high precision in the determination of neutrino rates, the detector design includes an internal and an external calibration system. This paper describes both calibration systems and the calibration campaigns that were carried out in the period between 2008 and 2011. We discuss some of the results and show that the calibration procedures preserved the radiopurity of the scintillator. The calibrations provided a detailed understanding of the detector response and led to a significant reduction of the systematic uncertainties in the Borexino measurements.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2012

Cosmic-muon flux and annual modulation in Borexino at 3800 m water-equivalent depth

We have measured the muon flux at the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory (3800 m w.e.) to be (3.41 \pm 0.01) \times 10-4m-2s-1 using four years of Borexino data. A modulation of this signal is observed with a period of (366\pm3) days and a relative amplitude of (1.29 \pm 0.07)%. The measured phase is (179 \pm 6) days, corresponding to a maximum on the 28th of June. Using the most complete atmospheric data models available, muon rate fluctuations are shown to be positively correlated with atmospheric temperature, with an effective coefficient αT = 0.93 \pm 0.04. This result represents the most precise study of the muon flux modulation for this site and is in good agreement with expectations.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2012

An Indirect Search for WIMPs in the Sun using 3109.6 days of upward-going muons in Super-Kamiokande

We present the result of an indirect search for high energy neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Sun using upward-going muon (upmu) events at Super-Kamiokande. Datasets from SKI-SKIII (3109.6 days) were used for the analysis. We looked for an excess of neutrino signal from the Sun as compared with the expected atmospheric neutrino background in three upmu categories: stopping, non-showering, and showering. No significant excess was observed. The 90% C.L. upper limits of upward-going muon flux induced by WIMPs of 100 GeV/c$^2$ were 6.4$\times10^{-15}$ cm$^{-2}$ sec$^{-1}$ and 4.0$\times10^{-15}$ cm$^{-2}$ sec$^{-1}$ for the soft and hard annihilation channels, respectively. These limits correspond to upper limits of 4.5$\times10^{-39}$ cm$^{-2}$ and 2.7$\times10^{-40}$ cm$^{-2}$ for spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross sections in the soft and hard annihilation channels, respectively.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Search for Nucleon Decay into Charged Anti-lepton plus Meson in Super-Kamiokande I and II

Searches for a nucleon decay into a charged anti-lepton (e^+ or μ^+) plus a light meson (π^0, π^-, η, ρ^0, ρ^-, ω) were performed using the Super-Kamiokande I and II data. Twelve nucleon decay modes were searched for. The total exposure is 140.9 kiloton \cdot years, which includes a 91.7 kiloton \cdot year exposure (1489.2 live days) of Super-Kamiokande-I and a 49.2 kiloton \cdot year exposure (798.6 live days) of Super-Kamiokande-II. The number of candidate events in the data was consistent with the atmospheric neutrino background expectation. No significant evidence for a nucleon decay was observed in the data. Thus, lower limits on the nucleon partial lifetime at 90% confidence level were obtained. The limits range from 3.6 \times 10^31 to 8.2 \times 10^33 years, depending on the decay modes.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2012

Search for Proton Decay into Muon plus Neutral Kaon in Super-Kamiokande I, II, and III

We have searched for proton into muon plus neutral kaon using data from a 91.7 kiloton-year exposure of Super-Kamiokande-I, a 49.2 kiloton-year exposure of Super-Kamiokande-II, and a 31.9 kiloton-year exposure of Super-Kamiokande-III. The number of candidate events in the data was consistent with the atmospheric neutrino background expectation and no evidence for proton decay in this mode was found. We set a partial lifetime lower limit of 1.6x10^33 years at the 90% confidence level.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2012

Solar neutrino physics with Borexino I

Borexino is a large-volume liquid scintillator detector installed in the underground halls of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. After several years of construction, data taking started in May 2007. The Borexino phase I ended after about three years of data taking. Borexino provided the first real time measurement of the $^{7}$Be solar neutrino interaction rate with accuracy better than 5% and confirmed the absence of its day-night asymmetry with 1.4% precision. This latter Borexino results alone rejects the LOW region of solar neutrino oscillation parameters at more than 8.5 $σ$ C.L. Combined with the other solar neutrino data, Borexino measurements isolate the MSW-LMA solution of neutrino oscillations without assuming CPT invariance in the neutrino sector. Borexino has also directly observed solar neutrinos in the 1.0-1.5 MeV energy range, leading to the first direct evidence of the $pep$ solar neutrino signal and the strongest constraint of the CNO solar neutrino flux up to date. Borexino provided the measurement of the solar $^{8}$B neutrino rate with 3 MeV energy threshold.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2012

Search for GUT Monopoles at Super-Kamiokande

GUT monopoles captured by the Sun's gravitation are expected to catalyze proton decays via the Callan-Rubakov process. In this scenario, protons, which initially decay into pions, will ultimately produce ν_{e}, ν_μ and \barν_μ. After undergoing neutrino oscillation, all neutrino species appear when they arrive at the Earth, and can be detected by a 50,000 metric ton water Cherenkov detector, Super-Kamiokande (SK). A search for low energy neutrinos in the electron total energy range from 19 to 55 MeV was carried out with SK and gives a monopole flux limit of F_M(σ_0/1 mb) < 6.3 \times 10^{-24} (β_M/10^{-3})^2 cm^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} at 90% C.L., where β_M is the monopole velocity in units of the speed of light and σ_0 is the catalysis cross section at β_M=1. The obtained limit is more than eight orders of magnitude more stringent than the current best cosmic-ray supermassive monopole flux limit, F_M < 1 \times 10^{-15} cm^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} for β_M < 10^{-3} and also two orders of magnitude lower than the result of the Kamiokande experiment, which used a similar detection method.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2011

Supernova Relic Neutrino Search at Super-Kamiokande

A new Super-Kamiokande (SK) search for Supernova Relic Neutrinos (SRNs) was conducted using 2853 live days of data. Sensitivity is now greatly improved compared to the 2003 SK result, which placed a flux limit near many theoretical predictions. This more detailed analysis includes a variety of improvements such as increased efficiency, a lower energy threshold, and an expanded data set. New combined upper limits on SRN flux are between 2.8 and 3.0 nu_e cm^-2 s^-1 > 16 MeV total positron energy (17.3 MeV E_nu).

hep-ex↗

arXiv2011

Search for Differences in Oscillation Parameters for Atmospheric Neutrinos and Antineutrinos at Super-Kamiokande

We present a search for differences in the oscillations of antineutrinos and neutrinos in the Super-Kamiokande -I, -II, and -III atmospheric neutrino sample. Under a two-flavor disappearance model with separate mixing parameters between neutrinos and antineutrinos, we find no evidence for a difference in oscillation parameters. Best fit antineutrino mixing is found to be at (dm2bar, sin2 2 thetabar) = (2.0x10^-3 eV^2, 1.0) and is consistent with the overall Super-K measurement.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2011

Letter of Intent: The Hyper-Kamiokande Experiment --- Detector Design and Physics Potential ---

We propose the Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) detector as a next generation underground water Cherenkov detector. It will serve as a far detector of a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment envisioned for the upgraded J-PARC, and as a detector capable of observing -- far beyond the sensitivity of the Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) detector -- proton decays, atmospheric neutrinos, and neutrinos from astronomical origins. The baseline design of Hyper-K is based on the highly successful Super-K, taking full advantage of a well-proven technology. (to be continued)

hep-ex↗

arXiv2011

Study of Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions with Atmospheric Neutrino Data in Super-Kamiokande I and II

In this paper we study non-standard neutrino interactions as an example of physics beyond the standard model using atmospheric neutrino data collected during the Super-Kamiokande I(1996-2001) and II(2003-2005) periods. We focus on flavor-changing-neutral-currents (FCNC), which allow neutrino flavor transitions via neutral current interactions, and effects which violate lepton non-universality (NU) and give rise to different neutral-current interaction-amplitudes for different neutrino flavors. We obtain a limit on the FCNC coupling parameter, varepsilon_{mu tau}, |varepsilon_{mu tau}|<1.1 x 10^{-2} at 90%C.L. and various constraints on other FCNC parameters as a function of the NU coupling, varepsilon_{e e}. We find no evidence of non-standard neutrino interactions in the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric data.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2011

Scintillation-only Based Pulse Shape Discrimination for Nuclear and Electron Recoils in Liquid Xenon

In a dedicated test setup at the Kamioka Observatory we studied pulse shape discrimination (PSD) in liquid xenon (LXe) for dark matter searches. PSD in LXe was based on the observation that scintillation light from electron events was emitted over a longer period of time than that of nuclear recoil events, and our method used a simple ratio of early to total scintillation light emission in a single scintillation event. Requiring an efficiency of 50% for nuclear recoil retention we reduced the electron background to 7.7\pm1.1(stat)\pm1.2 0.6(sys)\times10-2 at energies between 4.8 and 7.2 keVee and to 7.7\pm2.8(stat)\pm2.5 2.8(sys)\times10-3 at energies between 9.6 and 12 keVee for a scintillation light yield of 20.9 p.e./keV. Further study was done by masking some of that light to reduce this yield to 4.6 p.e./keV, the same method results in an electron event reduction of 2.4\pm0.2(stat)\pm0.3 0.2(sys)\times10-1 for the lower of the energy regions above. We also observe that in contrast to nuclear recoils the fluctuations in our early to total ratio for electron events are larger than expected from statistical fluctuations.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2011

Muon and Cosmogenic Neutron Detection in Borexino

Borexino, a liquid scintillator detector at LNGS, is designed for the detection of neutrinos and antineutrinos from the Sun, supernovae, nuclear reactors, and the Earth. The feeble nature of these signals requires a strong suppression of backgrounds below a few MeV. Very low intrinsic radiogenic contamination of all detector components needs to be accompanied by the efficient identification of muons and of muon-induced backgrounds. Muons produce unstable nuclei by spallation processes along their trajectory through the detector whose decays can mimic the expected signals; for isotopes with half-lives longer than a few seconds, the dead time induced by a muon-related veto becomes unacceptably long, unless its application can be restricted to a sub-volume along the muon track. Consequently, not only the identification of muons with very high efficiency but also a precise reconstruction of their tracks is of primary importance for the physics program of the experiment. The Borexino inner detector is surrounded by an outer water-Cherenkov detector that plays a fundamental role in accomplishing this task. The detector design principles and their implementation are described. The strategies adopted to identify muons are reviewed and their efficiency is evaluated. The overall muon veto efficiency is found to be 99.992% or better. Ad-hoc track reconstruction algorithms developed are presented. Their performance is tested against muon events of known direction such as those from the CNGS neutrino beam, test tracks available from a dedicated External Muon Tracker and cosmic muons whose angular distribution reflects the local overburden profile. The achieved angular resolution is 3-5 deg and the lateral resolution is 35-50 cm, depending on the impact parameter of the crossing muon. The methods implemented to efficiently tag cosmogenic neutrons are also presented.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2010

Atmospheric neutrino oscillation analysis with sub-leading effects in Super-Kamiokande I, II, and III

We present a search for non-zero theta_{13} and deviations of sin^2 theta_{23} from 0.5 in the oscillations of atmospheric neutrino data from Super-Kamiokande -I, -II, and -III. No distortions of the neutrino flux consistent with non-zero theta_{13} are found and both neutrino mass hierarchy hypotheses are in agreement with the data. The data are best fit at Delta m^2 = 2.1 x 10^-3 eV^2, sin^2 theta_{13} = 0.0, and sin^2 theta_{23} =0.5. In the normal (inverted) hierarchy theta_{13} and Delta m^2 are constrained at the one-dimensional 90% C.L. to sin^2 theta_{13} < 0.04 (0.09) and 1.9 (1.7) x 10^-3 < Delta m^2 < 2.6 (2.7) x 10^-3 eV^2. The atmospheric mixing angle is within 0.407 <= sin^2 theta_{23} <= 0.583 at 90% C.L.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2009

Self-shielding effect of a single phase liquid xenon detector for direct dark matter search

Liquid xenon is a suitable material for a dark matter search. For future large scale experiments, single phase detectors are attractive due to their simple configuration and scalability. However, in order to reduce backgrounds, they need to fully rely on liquid xenon's self-shielding property. A prototype detector was developed at Kamioka Observatory to establish vertex and energy reconstruction methods and to demonstrate the self-shielding power against gamma rays from outside of the detector. Sufficient self-shielding power for future experiments was obtained.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Distillation of Liquid Xenon to Remove Krypton

A high performance distillation system to remove krypton from xenon was constructed, and a purity level of Kr/Xe = $\sim 3 \times 10^{-12}$ was achieved. This development is crucial in facilitating high sensitivity low background experiments such as the search for dark matter in the universe.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2008

Scintillation yield of liquid xenon at room temperature

The intensity of scintillation light emission from liquid xenon at room temperature was measured. The scintillation light yield at 1 deg. was measured to be 0.64 +/- 0.02 (stat.) +/- 0.06 (sys.) of that at -100 deg. Using the reported light yield at -100 deg. (46 photons/keV), the measured light yield at 1 deg. corresponds to 29 photons/keV. This result shows that liquid xenon scintillator gives high light yield even at room temperature.

physics.ins-det↗