THEME02-2-1034-2000/2004

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02-2-1034-2000/2004

Priority:

Status:

Extended

Hadron Production Studies for the Neutrino Factory
and for the Atmospheric Neutrino Flux
( HARP, PS214)

Leader:

S.A. Bunyatov
G.A. Chelkov

Scientific Programme:
HARP:
Measurements of secondary hadrons produced on thin and thick nuclear targets by beams of protons and pions with the momentum in the range 1.5 to 15 GeV/c are proposed to be carried out over the full solid angle at CERN`s PS.
The main motivation is twofold: to acquire adequate knowledge of pion yields for an optimal design of the recently proposed intense neutrino source based on muon decay in a muon storage ring (neutrino factory) and to improve substantially the calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux which is needed for a refined interpretation of the evidence for neutrino oscillation from the study of atmospheric neutrinos in present and forthcoming experiments.
Additional motivations are measurement of the yield of low-momentum backward-going pions, which could be used for a high-intensity stopped-muon source as a by-product of the neutrino factory, and a better prediction of the fluxes in conventional neutrino beams, such as the neutrino beam from the KEK 12 GeV/c Proton Synchrotron, important for the interpretation of the results of the K2K experiment, and at the low-energy (8 GeV/c) booster at Fermilab, used for the MiniBooNe experiment.
The responsibility of the JINR group in the HARP experiment is
- Refurbishing, installation, commisioning and operation of the NOMAD drift chambers in the HARP experiment.
- Assembling, testing and operation of the electromagnetic calorimeter, the muon identifier, the cosmic wall and the beam TOF system.
- Development of the DAQ, monitoring, reconstruction and simulation software.
- Participation in the data analysis.
NOMAD:
The main goal of the NOMAD experiment is the search for neutrino oscillations in a wide-band neutrino beam from CERN SPS. It is to be attained by detecting interactions in a predominantely

_µ neutrino beam

charged current (CC) by observing the production of the

^- -lepton through its various decay modes by means of kinematical criteria (so-called "appearance" neutrino oscillation search).
Search for _µ , _e and _µ _e oscillations.
The final NOMAD results on the search for

_µ

and

oscillations have been published.
The analysis of the event sample corresponding to 1.3 million

_µ CC interactions yielded no evidence for the oscillation signal in the

m ² range of 1 <

m ² < 100 (eV ²).
The NOMAD limits are an order of magnitude better than the previous best results.
Non-Oscillation Physics. A dedicated study of strange particle production in neutrino interactions has been performed. The statistics of this event sample is about an order of magnitude larger than that of previous bubble chamber experiments, while the quality of event reconstruction is comparable.
Detailed measurements of the

⁰ polarization in

_µ CC interactions have been performed. The first measurement of the

⁰ polarization in neutrino interactions has been reported. Yields of neutral strange particles (K⁰_S,

⁰,

⁰ ) in

_µ CC interactions have been measured. Decays of resonances and heavy hyperons with identified K⁰_S and

⁰ in the final state have been analyzed. Clear signals corresponding to K^*±,

^*^±,

^- and

⁰ have been observed. Using the gained experience the JINR group continues the analysis of the strange particle production in neutrino neutral current interactions. The final results on the search for

_µ

_e oscillations with improved understanding of the systematic errors will be published.

Expected main results in 2003:

Preparation of the Data Summary Tape.
Analysis of the data taken with K2K and MiniBooNe targets.
Development of the off-line reconstruction program for the drift chambers.
Determination of the calibration constants of the drift chambers through the alignment procedure.

NOMAD :
To obtain the first results from the measurements of the ⁰ and ⁰ polarization in _µ neutral current (NC) interactions. Finalize the measurement of the production rates of neutral strange particles and the yields of heavy strange resonances in _µ neutral current (NC) interactions.
To study production of charmed D^*+(2010)-mesons in _µ CC interactions.
To study a possibility of extracting quasi-elastic neutrino interactions from the NOMAD data sample.

List of Activities

Activity or project

Spokespersons

Status

HARP, PS214

S.A. Bunyatov
G.A. Chelkov

Data taking
Data analysis

NOMAD, WA96

S.A. Bunyatov

Data analysis

Collaboration
Country or international organization	City	Institute or Laboratory
Belgium	Louvain-la-Neuve	UCL
Bulgaria	Sofia	SU
CERN
France	Paris	Univ. VI-VII
Germany	Dortmund	UNIDO
Italy	Bari	Univ.
		INFN
	Legnaro	INFN LNL
	Milan	Univ.
	Naples	Univ.
		INFN
	Padua	Univ.
	Rome	Univ. I
		INFN
	Trieste	Univ.
		INFN
Russia	Moscow	LPI RAS
	Protvino	SRC-IHEP
	Troitsk	INR RAS
Spain	Valencia	UV
Switzerland	Geneva	UniGe
United Kingdom	Didcot	RAL
	Oxford	Univ.
	Sheffield	Univ.

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Hadron Production Studies for the Neutrino Factory and for the Atmospheric Neutrino Flux ( HARP, PS214)

Hadron Production Studies for the Neutrino Factory
and for the Atmospheric Neutrino Flux
( HARP, PS214)