Absolute neutrino cross section measurements are presently limited by uncertainties on
ν
fluxes. In this paper, we propose a technique that is based on the reconstruction of large angle positrons in ...the decay tunnel to identify three-body semileptonic
K
+
→
e
+
π
0
ν
e
decays. This tagging facility operated in positron counting mode (“event count mode”) can be employed to determine the absolute
ν
e
flux at the neutrino detector with
O
(
1
%
)
precision. Facilities operated in “event by event tag mode” i.e. tagged neutrino beams that exploit the time coincidence of the positron at source and the
ν
e
interaction at the detector, are also discussed.
Supernova detection is a major objective of the Super-Kamiokande (SK) experiment. In the next stage of SK (SK-Gd), gadolinium (Gd) sulfate will be added to the detector, which will improve the ...ability of the detector to identify neutrons. A core-collapse supernova (CCSN) will be preceded by an increasing flux of neutrinos and antineutrinos, from thermal and weak nuclear processes in the star, over a timescale of hours; some of which may be detected at SK-Gd. This could provide an early warning of an imminent CCSN, hours earlier than the detection of the neutrinos from core collapse. Electron antineutrino detection will rely on inverse beta decay events below the usual analysis energy threshold of SK, so Gd loading is vital to reduce backgrounds while maximizing detection efficiency. Assuming normal neutrino mass ordering, more than 200 events could be detected in the final 12 hr before core collapse for a 15-25 solar mass star at around 200 pc, which is representative of the nearest red supergiant to Earth, -Ori (Betelgeuse). At a statistical false alarm rate of 1 per century, detection could be up to 10 hr before core collapse, and a pre-supernova star could be detected by SK-Gd up to 600 pc away. A pre-supernova alert could be provided to the astrophysics community following gadolinium loading.
The longitudinal segmentation of shashlik calorimeters is challenged by dead zones and non-uniformities introduced by the light collection and readout system. This limitation can be overcome by ...direct fiber–photosensor coupling, avoiding routing and bundling of the wavelength shifter fibers and embedding ultra-compact photosensors (SiPMs) in the bulk of the calorimeter. We present the first experimental test of this readout scheme performed at the CERN PS-T9 beamline in 2015 with negative particles in the 1–5GeV energy range. In this paper, we demonstrate that the scheme does not compromise the energy resolution and linearity compared with standard light collection and readout systems. In addition, we study the performance of the calorimeter for partially contained charged hadrons to assess the e/π separation capability and the response of the photosensors to direct ionization.
Neutral current (NC) interactions of atmospheric neutrinos on oxygen form one of the major backgrounds in the search for supernova relic neutrinos with water-based Cherenkov detectors. The NC channel ...is dominated by neutrino quasielastic (NCQE) scattering off nucleons inside O16 nuclei. In this paper we report the first measurement of NCQE cross section using atmospheric neutrinos at Super-Kamiokande (SK). The measurement used 2,778 live days of SK-IV data with a fiducial volume of 22.5 kiloton water. Within the visible energy window of 7.5–29.5 MeV, we observed 117 events compared to the expected 71.9 NCQE signal and 53.1 background events. Weighted by the atmospheric neutrino spectrum from 160 MeV to 10 GeV, the flux averaged NCQE cross section is measured to be (1.01±0.17(stat.)−0.30+0.78(sys.))×10−38 cm2.
Abstract
A new event reconstruction algorithm based on a maximum likelihood method has been developed for Super-Kamiokande. Its improved kinematic and particle identification capabilities enable the ...analysis of atmospheric neutrino data in a detector volume 32% larger than previous analyses and increase the sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy. Analysis of a 253.9 kton$\cdot$year exposure of the Super-Kamiokande IV atmospheric neutrino data has yielded a weak preference for the normal hierarchy, disfavoring the inverted hierarchy at 74% assuming oscillations at the best fit of the analysis.
Effective longitudinal segmentation of shashlik calorimeters can be achieved taking advantage of the compactness and reliability of silicon photomultipliers. These photosensors can be embedded in the ...bulk of the calorimeter and are employed to design very compact shashlik modules that sample electromagnetic and hadronic showers every few radiation lengths. In this paper, we discuss the performance of a calorimeter made up of 12 such modules and able to sample showers every ~4X 0 . In summer 2016, this prototype has been exposed to electrons, muons, and hadrons at CERN PS (East Area T9 beamline). The performances in terms of energy resolution, linearity, response to minimum ionizing particles, and reconstruction of the shower profile are discussed.
Polysiloxane-based scintillators for shashlik calorimeters Acerbi, F.; Branca, A.; Brizzolari, C. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
03/2020, Volume:
956
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present the first application of polysiloxane-based scintillators as active medium in a shashlik sampling calorimeter. These results were obtained from a testbeam campaign of a ∼6×6×45 cm3 (13 X0 ...depth) prototype. A Wavelength Shifting fiber array of 36 elements runs perpendicularly to the stack of iron (15 mm) and polysiloxane scintillator (15 mm) tiles with a density of about one over cm2. Unlike shashlik calorimeters based on plastic organic scintillators, here fibers are optically matched with the scintillator without any intermediate air gap. The prototype features a compact light readout based on Silicon Photo-Multipliers embedded in the bulk of the detector. The detector was tested with electrons, pions and muons with energies ranging from 1 to 7 GeV at the CERN-PS. This solution offers a highly radiation hard detector to instrument the decay region of a neutrino beam, providing an event-by-event measurement of high-angle decay products associated with neutrino production (ENUBET, Enhanced NeUtrino BEams from kaon Tagging, ERC project). The results in terms of light yield, uniformity and energy resolution, are compared to a similar calorimeter built with ordinary plastic scintillators.
Experiments were performed at the CERN SPS with 120 GeV/c stored proton beams to assess the possibility of beam halo collimation assisted by bent crystals. A bent crystal was used to deflect ...horizontally by an angle of about 170 μrad the beam halo protons in channeling states directing them into a 60 cm long tungsten absorber. The halo loss rate due to nuclear inelastic interactions of protons in the aligned crystal was up to five times smaller than for its amorphous orientation. Channeled fractions, (75±4)% and (85±5)% for the two tested silicon crystals, were measured by intercepting the deflected beam with another collimator located between the crystals and the absorber. The pixel detector (MEDIPIX) installed in a Roman pot inside the beam pipe was used to obtain visual images of the deflected beam.
The goal of the ENUBET project is to demonstrate that a precision of ∼1% on measurement of the absolute neutrino cross section at GeV scale can be achieved by monitoring the positron production in ...the decay tunnel coming from the three-body semileptonic decays of kaons. The baseline option for the tunnel instrumentation employs a fine-grained shashlik calorimeter with a 4.3 X0 longitudinal segmentation to separate positrons and pions coming from other decay modes of kaons. The system is complemented by rings of plastic scintillator doublets below the calorimeter acting as a photon veto to suppress the π0 background and to provide timing informations. SiPMs instrumenting the detector will be exposed to sizeble amounts of neutrons arising in hadronic showers. In order to reproduce such a working environment, SiPMs with different cell size (from 12 to 20 μm) were irradiated at the INFN-LNL CN Van Der Graaf with neutron fluences up to 2×1011 n/cm2 (1 MeV-eq.). The exposed light sensors were characterized in terms of I–V curves at different irradiation levels, and their response tested by exposing a prototype on beam at CERN. In this contribution we will report the results of the described tests on SiPMs, together with the advances in their integration with the ENUBET detectors.
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