Next section: General introduction

Introduction to Long-Baseline Neutrino Experimentation

JimHill

Abstract:

This is a very short talk aimed at undergraduates (part of yet another job interview routine). The goal is only to define the problem of neutrino oscillation experimentation. No current results are presented. The presentation assumes the viewer has some background in quantum mechanics and linear algebra, but not necessarily any particle physics. Beware that some of the included images are rather large (few MB) and may take some time to load. This is part of the reason that the sections are split into separate files. Since the time constraint was severe, what I present here is essentially a long-winded definition of the field in which I work.

I have also composed a relatively comprehensive talk, aimed at an audience of particle physicists, on neutrino oscillation long-baseline experimentation in general. It is current as of early spring 2001, and will probably not be updated. (I may add a new version rather than an update after K2K has more results and reflecting schedule changes and milestones in other experiments.) For greater detail on my current work and its place in the experiment, there is a talk on beam MC for extrapolation.

(Download the above figure.)

This cover figure shows the neutrino's discovery experiment in the early 1950's along with a view of a modern experiment. In the older one, you can see Fred Reines leaning over his detector and he and Clyde Cowan watching the scalers where they gather data. In the new experiment the large tank is being filled while cleaned by teams of researchers in boats. (The red dot at the right side of the water surface is a boat with two adults.) The event displays have a volume of data for each event with times and positions of all the photon detections. The event display in the lower left is a real event detected at the Super-Kamiokande detector in time with the neutrino beam from KEK.