\pi 0 and the T2K Experiment

TL;DR

The paper discusses the T2K neutrino experiment's efforts to measure the mixing angle θ13 by analyzing neutrino oscillations and background reduction techniques involving neutral current π0 production at the near detector.

Contribution

It presents the status of detector preparations and tools for measuring neutral current π0 production to improve neutrino oscillation measurements in T2K.

Findings

Water target regions help determine NC1π0 cross-section.

Detector preparations are underway for physics data collection.

Background reduction techniques are being developed for νe appearance measurement.

Abstract

The Tokai to Kamioka neutrino oscillation experiment aims to determine the third and final lepton mixing angle $\theta_{13}$, through a measurement of the sub-dominant oscillation $\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow\nu_{e}$. The oscillation is a maximum as $\nu_{\mu}$ travel 295~km from the near detectors to the far Super-Kamiokande detector. Single $\pi^{0}$ production from neutral current (NC1$\pi^{0}$) neutrino interactions are a significant background to $\nu_{e}$ events in water Cherenkov detectors such as Super-Kamiokande. To reduce this background, the off-axis ND280 near detector contains water target regions to determine the cross-section of such NC1$\pi^{0}$ events. Here, I discuss the status of the detectors and tools in preparation for physics data taking.