And Oscillations with the Atmospheric Neutrino Data in Super
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Study of ! and ! Neutrino ster il e Oscillations with the Atmospheric Neutrino Data in Sup erKamiokande Kenji Ishihara December Do ctor Thesis University of Tokyo Abstract A study of the atmospheric neutrino interactions was carried out using the data from a ktonwater Cherenkov detector Sup erKamiokande We observed fullycontained and partiallycontained events with an exp osure of kton year We studied the likeelike ratio of the singlering events and compared it with a theoretcal prediction We found that the ratio was signicantly smaller than the theo retical prediction in b oth sub and multiGeV energy ranges In addition we studied the zenith angle distribution of these events We found that the zenith angle distribution of elike events were in go o d agreement with the theoretical prediction On the other hand the zenithangle distribution of the like events showed a signicant decit of the upwardgoing events These data are explained by neutrino oscillation b etween and or b etween and where is a new hypothetical particle which do es ster il e ster il e not interact with matter via charged current nor neutral current interactions From these data we estimated the allowed region of neutrino oscillation parameters m and sin The CL allowed region was found to b e within m eV and sin for b oth hypothesis These observations reconrmed with a higher statistics the atmospheric neutrino oscillation rep orted by the same exp eriment in We have also studied partiallycontained events and fullycontained multiring events These events were used to distinguish the and oscillations In ster il e the case of oscillation matter eect must b e taken into account in the ster il e neutrino oscillation analysis Since the matter eect suppress the oscillation for high energy neutrinos zenith angle distribution of the partiallycontained events was studied to distinguish the two neutrino oscillation mo des Fullycontained multiring events contain a large number of neutral current events Since do es not interact with matter we ster il e should observe a decit of upwardgoing neutral current events for oscillation ster il e The U pD ow n ratios of these two data sets and the corresp onding predictions based on the hypothesis agreed On the other hand the predictions based on the hypothesis had p o orer agreements with the data By combining studies of ster il e partiallycontained events and fullycontained multiring events we concluded that the oscillation hypothesis as the solution of the atmospheric neutrino oscillation ster il e was disfavored at CL for most of the region indicated by the fullycontained single ring analysis We also found that this conclusion was supp orted by the upwardgoing muon data Acknowledgments First of all I would like to express my great appreciation to my advisor Prof TKa jita He gave me the chance to participate in this great exp eriment from the rst stage of the analysis on the atmospheric neutrino He introduced me to high energy physics and sup p orted me during graduate studies His excellent guidance and continues encouragement were very valuable to me I would like to b e thankful to Prof YTotsuka the sp okesman of the Sup erKamiokande exp eriment Prof KNakamura Prof YSuzuki and Prof MNakahata They gave me many valuable advice ab out my work on various o ccasions I am grateful sp ecially to the members of the atmospheric neutrino and proton decay analysis group THayakawa taught me the art of the physics from the basics Dr KOkumura gave me many supp ort for my work I am indebted to Dr YItow Dr MMiura MShiozawa Dr YObayashi Dr SKasuga JKameda KKobayashi from ICRR Dr KKaneyuki Dr YHayato YKanaya TFutagami from TIT KFujita and MEtoh from Tohoku University and the members in USA esp ecially Dr Ed Kearns Dr C Walter Dr KScholberg Dr M Messier M Earl Dr C McGrew C Mauger B Viren Dr D Casp er T Barszczak Dr L Wai Dr JGeorge and A Kibayashi I should also thank the Upwardgoing muon analysis group Dr MTakita KNitta They gave me the chance to analyze the upwardgoing muon data I am thankful to all the collab orators of Sup erKamiokande for very useful suggestions Esp ecially Dr KInoue Dr YFukuda Dr YTakeuchi Dr YKoshio Dr HIshino MOketa MOhta NSakurai SNakayama SYamada UKobayashi and TTakeuchi who are all members of ICRR at Kamioka and with whom I often had useful discussions ab out the exp eriment physics and so on Finally I gratefully acknowledge the co op eration of Kamioka Mining and Smelting Company and nancial supp ort of the Japan So ciety of the Promotion of Science Contents Introduction Atmospheric neutrino Observation of the atmospheric neutrinos Neutrino Oscillation Matter eect Sterile neutrino Indication of the Hot dark matter mo del Constraints for sterile neutrino PseudoDirac neutrinos mo del Dierence b etween and in Sup er Kamiokande s Neutral current sample High energy sample Detector Water Cherenkov detector Water tank Photo Multiplier Tubes Inner PMT Outer PMT Water purication system Water purication system Radon free air system Data acquisition system i ii CONTENTS Electronics for the ID Electronics for the OD Online and oine systems Calibration Relative PMT gain calibration Absolute PMT gain calibration Timing calibration Water transparency Direct measurement with a dye laser Cosmicray muon metho d Absolute energy calibration Decay electrons LINAC mass Low energy stopping cosmic ray muons High energy stopping cosmic ray muons Summary of the absolute energy calibration Data reduction Reduction outline FC reduction First reduction Second reduction Third reduction Fourth reduction PC reduction First reduction Second reduction Third reduction Fourth reduction Fifth reduction CONTENTS iii Reduction p erformance Scanning Event reconstruction Outline of reconstruction TDCt Point t Cherenkov edge search Final vertex tter Ringcounting Search for candidate rings Charge separation and determination of ring number Particle identication Estimate the direct photon Estimate the scattered lights Estimate particle type MS t Momentum estimation Monte Carlo simulation Atmospheric neutrino ux Neutrino interaction Quasielastic scattering Single pion pro duction Coherent pion pro duction Multi pion pro duction Meson nuclear eect Detector simulation Data summary Data summary Vertex p osition distribution iv CONTENTS Number of rings and PID distribution Summary Neutrino oscillation analysis using FC singlering events e ratio Systematic error in R Systematic error in the atmospheric neutrino ux Systematic error from the neutrino interaction cross sections Systematic error related to the event reconstruction The U pD ow n ratio Systematic error in the U pD ow n ratio Neutrino oscillation analysis Summary of the singlering analysis Tests of .