Measurement of Neutrino Interactions and Three Flavor Neutrino Oscillations in the T2K Experiment

This book is based on the author's work in the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, in which neutrinos are generated by a proton beam and are detected by near and far neutrino detectors. In order to achieve the precise measurement of the neutrino oscillation, an accurate understanding of the neutrino beam and the neutrino interaction is essential. Thus, the author measured the neutrino beam properties and the neutrino interaction cross sections using a near neutrino detector called INGRID and promoted a better understanding of them. Then, the author performed a neutrino oscillation analysis using the neutrino beam and neutrino interaction models verified by the INGRID measurements. As a result, some values of the neutrino CP phase are disfavored at the 90% confidence level. If the measurement precision is further improved, we may be able to discover the finite CP phase which involves the CP violation. Thus, this result is an important step towards the discovery of CP violation in the lepton sector, which may be the key to understanding the origin of the matterantimatter asymmetry in the universe.

Nominated as an outstanding Ph.D thesis by Kyoto University's Physics Department in 2015 Presents the world's most precise measurements of neutrino interaction and neutrino oscillation in the T2K experiment Describes every process of the neutrino interaction measurements from the detector design to the physics analysis Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Dr.Tatsuya Kikawa

Physics Department, Kyoto University

Inhalt

Introduction to Neutrino Physics.- T2K Experiment.- INGRID Detector.- Neutrino Event Prediction.- Overview of Measurements.- Measurement of Neutrino Beam Properties.- Measurement of Charged Current Inclusive Cross Section.- Measurement of Charged Current Quasi-Elastic Cross Section.- Measurement of Charged Current Coherent Pion Production Cross Section.- Measurement of Neutrino Oscillations.- Conclusions.