Neutrino beam simulations of an extended target in T2K and neutrino interactions in BabyMIND

Lam, Lai Hin (2023) Neutrino beam simulations of an extended target in T2K and neutrino interactions in BabyMIND. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis describes two independent studies performed in the context of the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment: a simulated study of an upgraded extended target for the T2K neutrino beam, and a study of neutrino interactions in the BabyMIND near detector in T2K. In the first study, a simulation of a potential upgrade to the T2K secondary beamline by inserting an extra target at the downstream end of the first magnetic horn was carried out. Different choices of materials are tested with density modification on some of the materials. Simulated results show that titanium provides the best improvement to the ratio of right-sign and wrong-sign neutrino fluxes, but other material properties suggest that silicon carbide is the optimal material out of all the tested materials. Results also show that the materials used on the support structure for the extra target should be minimized.

Another study performed in this thesis is the Monte-Carlo simulation of muon neutrino interactions inside BabyMIND. The momenta of the muons from the simulated results are reconstructed by measuring the range of the muons using the Bethe-Bloch formula. A migration matrix is extracted from the correlation between true and reconstructed muon momenta. An unfolding method based on Bayes’ theorem is used, in combination with the extracted migration matrix, to extract the momenta from data collected during run 10 and run 11 of the T2K experiment, to measure the ratio of antineutrinos to neutrinos observed in the forward-horn-current configuration of T2K. The reconstruction of the data and the unfolding of the data gives the wrong-sign ratios of 3.73% and 3.86% respectively between 0 and 2000MeV/c.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy; Q Science > QC Physics
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Supervisor's Name: Soler, Professor Paul
• Date of Award: 2023
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2023-83439
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 21 Feb 2023 12:45
• Last Modified: 21 Feb 2023 12:49
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83439
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83439