Measurements of Hadronic Cross Section for Precise Determination of Neutrino Beam Properties in T2K Oscillation Experiment
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University of Warsaw Faculty of Physics Institute of Experimental Physics Measurements of Hadronic Cross Section for Precise Determination of Neutrino Beam Properties in T2K Oscillation Experiment Magdalena Zofia Posiadała Ph.D. thesis written under supervision of prof. dr hab. Danuta Kiełczewska Warsaw, 2011 Abstract Differential cross sections and mean multiplicities in production processes for low momentum charged pion mesons and protons in p+C interactions at 31 GeV/c measured with the large acceptance NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS are presented. A set of data col- lected during the first NA61/SHINE run in 2007 with a thin graphite target was used for the analysis. The results are presented as a function of laboratory momentum in 10 intervals of the laboratory polar angle covering the range from 0 up to 420 mrad. The spectra are compared with predictions of several hadron production models. Measurements for π+ and π− mesons are used by the T2K experiment to tune neutrino beam simulations and reduce uncertainties on charged pion production. Contents List of Figures vii List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xii Introduction 1 1 Neutrinos 4 1.1 Neutrino oscillation mechanism . .5 1.2 The Current Situation in Neutrino Oscillation Physics . .7 2 T2K experiment and its prerequisites for NA61/SHINE measurements 18 2.1 The T2K long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment . 18 2.2 J-PARC facility . 20 2.2.1 J-PARC accelerator . 20 2.2.2 Primary and secondary T2K beamline . 20 2.2.3 Near detector complex . 23 2.3 Overview of the Super-Kamiokande detector . 24 2.4 T2K physical goals . 24 2.5 T2K off-axis neutrino beam . 24 2.5.1 General properties of the off-axis neutrino beams . 25 2.5.2 Prediction of the T2K neutrino flux . 26 2.5.3 The importance of the far-to-near flux ratio . 28 2.6 Overview of the hadron production measurements . 31 2.7 Prerequisites for the NA61/SHINE measurements to be used by T2K . 31 3 The NA61/SHINE experiment 32 3.1 The NA61/SHINE physics program . 32 3.2 The CERN accelerator complex . 32 3.3 Trigger and beam setup . 33 3.4 Graphite targets used during pilot 2007 run . 34 3.5 Experimental setup . 35 3.6 Time Projection Chambers . 35 3.6.1 Introduction . 35 3.6.2 Geometrical dimensions of the TPCs . 36 3.6.3 Gases in the TPCs . 37 3.6.4 Magnetic field . 38 3.7 Time-of-Flight System . 38 4 Methods of reconstruction and particle identification 40 4.1 Track reconstruction and momentum measurement . 40 4.1.1 Cluster finding . 40 4.1.2 Track finding and fitting . 41 4.2 Total energy loss of charged particles . 41 4.3 Measurement of the ionization . 43 4.3.1 Drift length and angle dependent losses . 45 4.3.2 Pressure and temperature . 45 4.3.3 Sector calibration . 46 4.3.4 Determination of track dE/dx for separate TPCs . 46 4.3.5 Global dE/dx ................................ 47 4.4 The Bethe-Bloch parametrization . 48 4.4.1 Energy loss of heavy charged particles by atomic collisions . 48 4.4.2 Parametrization for heavy charged particles . 49 4.4.3 Calibration of Bethe-Bloch parametrization . 50 4.4.4 Energy loss of electrons and positrons . 52 4.4.5 Parametrization for electrons and positrons . 52 4.5 Methods of Particle Identification . 53 4.5.1 Method based on energy loss measurement only . 53 4.5.2 Combined energy loss and time-of-flight measurement. 54 4.6 Analysis of negatively charged particles . 56 4.7 Analyses map . 57 5 Event and track selection 58 5.1 Event selection . 58 5.2 Track selection . 58 5.2.1 The track selection based on impact parameter cut . 59 5.2.2 The track selection based on total number of reconstructed points . 60 5.2.3 The track selection based on sum of numbers of reconstructed points in VTPC1 and VTPC2 . 65 5.2.4 The track selection based on a fraction of total number of potential points 66 5.3 Different track topologies: Right Side and Wrong Side Tracks . 66 6 Particle Identification by Energy Loss Measurement 74 6.1 Expected distributions of particle energy loss . 74 6.2 Dependence of energy loss measurement on production angle . 75 6.3 Particle separation in selected range of energy loss and momentum . 78 6.4 Preliminary particle identification based on relative probability functions . 79 6.5 Maximum likelihood method for particle identification . 81 6.6 Results on charged pion identification . 82 6.7 Results on electron and positron identification . 85 6.8 Results on proton identification . 85 7 Monte Carlo Corrections 90 7.1 Simulation . 90 7.2 Validation of the Monte Carlo sample . 90 7.2.1 Limited geometrical acceptance in azimuthal angle . 92 7.3 Corrections . 99 7.3.1 Introduction . 99 7.3.2 Correction matrices for low momentum π+, π− mesons and protons . 99 7.3.3 Selection of primary and secondary particles . 99 7.3.4 Feed-down correction . 101 7.4 Corrected spectra of π+, π− and protons . 103 8 Cross section measurements and normalization of particle spectra 106 8.1 Inelastic and Production p+C Cross Sections . 106 8.2 Normalization procedure . 109 8.3 Inclusive cross sections and mean multiplicities in production interactions for low momentum π+, π− and protons . 111 8.4 Charged pion spectra-comparison of results obtained with other analyses . 111 9 Studies of systematic errors 120 9.1 Sources of systematic uncertainties . 120 9.1.1 Feed-down from weak decays and secondary interactions . 120 9.1.2 Reconstruction effect studied by comparison of RST and WST track topologies . 121 9.1.3 Uncertainties coming from particle identification . 123 9.2 Total error calculation . 128 10 Impact of the NA61 results on the T2K beam simulation 132 10.1 Comparison of NA61 results to model predictions . 132 10.2 Impact of the NA61 results on the T2K beam simulation . 133 11 Summary and Conclusions 139 A Parametrization of the Bethe-Bloch function 141 B Maximum likelihood method for particle identification 144 C RST and WST configurations 146 Bibliography 148 List of Figures 1.1 Differential Standard Solar Model neutrino fluxes. .8 1.2 SNO results after Phase-II. 11 1.3 Solar and KamLAND oscillation parameter analysis. 12 1.4 First Super-Kamiokande results on the neutrino oscillation phenomena. 14 1.5 The νµ ! ντ oscillation results from MINOS . 15 1.6 Results from various neutrino oscillation experiments. 17 2.1 Schematic view of the T2K experiment. 19 2.2 T2K beamline at J-PARC. 21 2.3 Secondary T2K beamline at J-PARC. 21 2.4 Cross section of the first horn with target . 22 2.5 The near detector complex with INGRID and ND280. 23 2.6 Schematic view of the Super-Kamiokande detector. 25 2.7 Characteristics of the off-axis beam . 26 2.8 Production angles θ versus momentum p of pions and kaons whose daughter neutrinos pass through the Super-Kamiokande detector. 27 2.9 Energy spectra for νµ, ν¯µ, νe and ν¯e at the ND280 near detector and Super- Kamiokande. 28 2.10 The spectra predictions for νµ and νe at the ND280 and Super-Kamiokande detector. 29 2.11 Far-to-near flux ratio for νµ and νe neutrinos. 30 2.12 Ratios of the far-to-near ratios computed with GFLUKA and GHEISHA models with respect to the reference ratio computed with GCALOR. 30 3.1 Layout of the beam line . 33 3.2 The beam spot as measured by BPD-3 . 34 3.3 The beam momentum distribution . 34 3.4 Thin and T2K replica graphite targets . 35 3.5 The layout of the NA61 experiment at the CERN SPS . 36 3.6 TPC readout chamber layout . 36 3.7 Numbering conventions of the TPCs sectors . 37 3.8 Schematic view of the VTPC1 straight pad-rows and turned pads . 39 4.1 Example of an interaction of a 31 GeV/c proton on thin carbon target. 42 4.2 Total energy loss versus electron energy in the gaseous argon. 44 4.3 Schematic view of the one dimensional cluster charge signal measured in ADC units. 45 4.4 The Moyal’s function distribution. 47 4.5 Measured dE/dx as a function of momentum for positively and negatively charged particles, respectively. 51 4.6 Measured dE/dx versus value of βγ........................ 52 4.7 Measured mean dE/dx versus value of βγ and mean momentum < p > for electrons and positrons . 53 4.8 The measured dE/dx values are plotted versus momentum for positively and negatively charged particles together with the parametrized BB curves. 54 4.9 Identification of positive particles using both dE/dx and ToF-F measurements. 55 4.10 Production.