Neutrino lunch time quiz [6]

March 12, 2024

Akira Konaka
(TRIUMF)

1
2 Neutrino Quiz [6]

• Why did the community not accept Kamiokande's solar and

atmospheric neutrino oscillation results?
- greater than 5σ in atmospheric neutrino oscillation
- greater than 5σ in solar neutrino oscillation
• How did SuperK and SNO overcome these challenges?

• What are the lessons for HyperK discoveries?

3 Solar neutrino deficit with Cl detector

• 600 tonnes of detergent

• Extract 37Ar: ~12/month
• Observed 1/3 of expected

Eth=0.81MeV

Ar comes out as gas

4 Gallium experiments

Eth=0.23MeV

GALLEX (30tonne Ga) SAGE (50 tonne Ga)

5 Gallium results

• Observed 60% of expectation

• Sensitive to lower energy solar neutrinos
(Eth = 0.23MeV)
Kamiokande/SuperK
Electrons are
scattered in
the forward
direction
opposite to
the sun

Observed 30-40% of expectation

7 Solar neutrino deficit at Kamiokande

• Neutrinos from the sun detected

• Peak from the sun direction

• 46% of the expected amount

(cross section is forward peaked)

Kamiokande
Phys.Rev.Lett. 65 (1990) 1297
8 5σ was not the discovery condition

• 5σ is not the discovery condition

• Other possibilities had to be excluded
• Uncertainty in the solar model
Kamiokande
Phys.Rev.Lett. 65 (1990) 1297
• Systematic uncertainty to be constrained
• Systematics does not behave gaussian
• Systematic uncertainties needs to be
constrained by data (Statistical error)

11 years before the discovery by SNO

Solar neutrino puzzle
60% 40% 30-40%
10 Super-K solar neutrino (Elastic Scattering)

Lower energy threshold and

Ee>6.5MeV signi cance of many σ
Still not convincing for the
oscillation discovery:
+ Problem in solar model?

3 years before the discovery by SNO

SuperK, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 4729

fi
The sun observed by SuperK
SNO experiment

Large cross section

electron carries the ν energy

Tagged by neutron signal

Sensitive to all the neutrinos

CC and NC are mixed

Peak in the sun direction
13 Discovery of the solar neutrino oscillation
SNO collab. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 071301 SK

ΦES

e e

SNO
e e

Total neutrino flux from NC without relying on the solar model

ΦCC
SNO result with NC

νe flux (ΦCC) is ~1/3 of

the total ν flux (ΦNC)
 Solar neutrio oscillation
-3

-4

-5

-6

-7

-8

-9

-10

-11
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2

KamLand to identify LMA

 Atmospheric neutrinos
Dominant in sub-GeV region.

Produced by cosmic ray proton

interacting in earth atmosphere:

νμ
e νe
 Atmospheric ν oscillation

• Atmospheric ν produced
from cosmic ray proton
hitting the atmosphere

• Baseline oscillation length

estimated by the zenith angle:
• osc. max: 6GeV, 3000km
0.6GeV, 300km 17
18 Atmospheric neutrino oscillation uncertainties

• Hard to predict atm. ν flux:

• Large uncertainty in
- primary cosmic ray flux neutrino cross sections
- hadronic interaction uncertainty
- Large geomagnetic effect (East-West effect)
19 Primary cosmic ray flux

• Primary flux information

is recently improved by
the satellite detectors
20 Atmospheric neutrino uncertainty

• Hard to predict atm. ν flux:

- primary cosmic ray flux
- hadronic interaction uncertainty
- Large geomagnetic effect (East-West effect)
- current SK prediction still has 20% uncertainty
• Large uncertainty in
neutrino cross sections
21 Hadronic uncertainty (Laurence’s thesis)

Limited hadron interaction data which are recently improved

 νμ/νe ratio

• Cancels flux and neutrino cross section in the first order

• νμ/νe ratio ~ 2 in the sub-GeV region :
- muon (νe source) reaches the earth at higher energy
- zenith angle (cosθ) distribution for sub-GeV region is flat (x-section) 22
23 Magnetic field (East-West) effect on νμ/νe ratio

• Significant east-west effect

• Small difference at lower energy
- momentum distribution is different
for e and μ

East-West e ect
in SuperK
ff
 Atmospheric ν oscillation before SK
Kamiokande-II collab. Phys.Lett. B280 (1992) 146

5σ effect each for sub-GeV and

multi-GeV atmospheric neutrinos

Kamiokande-II collab.
Phys.Lett. B335 (1994) 237
Clear zenith angle dependence
is seen for multi-GeV atmospheric
neutrinos, as expected from
oscillation
Double ratio
Up to ~2GeV muons works for
can be contained in multi-GeV
Kamiokande 24
 Kamiokande observed 5σ effect for both atmospheric and solar neutrinos

• Bayes theorem:
• P(model | data) = P(data | model) P(model) / P(data)
posterior prior
• Strong data are required to overcome a small prior
• extraordinary result require extraordinary checks

• “priors” before 1998 required compelling evidence

• Standard model works: neutrino mass = 0
• hard to explain tiny mass = tiny coupling to Higgs
• Neutrino mixing must be small like quarks
• natural to expect the avour and mass overlap:
mixing is likely coming from small correction term
• Hard to understand atmospheric/solar neutrinos (systematics limited)
• Require precise knowledge of atmospheric and solar neutrino ux
25
fl
fl
26 Neutrino’98 (Takayama) talk by Kajita-san

• Discovery of ν-oscillation:
- ν has mass
• tiny but nonzero
- ν flavour mixes
• large mixing

Δm2=2.5x10-3 eV2
sin22θ=1
27 Super-Kamioande

fiducial mass=22.5kton
28 νμ/νe ratio in SK atmospheric neutrinos
Sub-GeV: νµ/νe=2, no ν direction
Multi-GeV: νµ/νe>2, with ν direction

(Multi-GeV)
Sub-GeV data
µ reaching
the earth

Multi—GeV data

(Sub-GeV) Kamiokande data already showed 5σ effect

29 Up/Down asymmetry (direction of multi-GeV events)
SuperK is large enough to contain
a large number of multi-GeV neutrinos

cosθ=1 After Before

oscillation oscillation

cosθ=-1

Only up-going muons have deficit:

Enough path length to oscillate!
30 Neutrino Quiz [7]

• What are the lessons for HyperK discoveries?

- How can we suppress the systematic uncertainties
• neutrino flux uncertainties
• detector calibration uncertainties
• neutrino interaction cross-section uncertainties
HyperK Systematics in νμ→νe vs. ν̅μ→ν̅e event rate

CP violation
sensitivity is
limited by the
systematic
uncertainties:
- Detector
- Cross section

Limited by
the systematic
uncertainty
↓
it would prevent
the discovery
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