Sheffield T2K Group
24th April 2009 : First proton beam in the neutrino beam line at J-PARC in Tokai
The T2K experiment is a second generation neutrino oscillation
experiment using the existing Super-Kamiokande
experiment as the main
detector. The new Japanese nuclear physics J-PARC facility being built at
Tokai, on Japan's east coast, has a high-power 50 GeV proton
synchrotron originally intended to produce beams for neutron
scattering and high energy nuclear physics. T2K will use
this high-intensity proton beam to generate an intense muon neutrino
beam aimed at Super-Kamiokande (a slightly off-axis
geometry is used to produce a more monochromatic beam).
The primary aim of the T2K experiment is to measure some of the less well-known parameters in the so-called MNS mixing matrix, such as sin22ϑ23 to an accuracy of ±0.01 and Δm232 the 2-3 mass squared difference to an accuracy of 10-4 eV, as well as as yet unmeasured mixing angle sin22ϑ13 to an accuracy of approximately 0.01 (depending on the values of other parameters). This performance is about an order of magnitude better than currently running experiments.
The T2K UK Collaboration consists of groups from Daresbury Laboratory, Imperial College, Lancaster, Liverpool, Queen Mary, RAL, Sheffield and Warwick. The main interests of the UK group lie in the target and beam dump design, data acquisition and electronics and the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter at the "near detector", located 280 m from the target, which is required to characterise the beam, providing a "baseline" from which the oscillation effects can be measured.
The Sheffield T2K group is currently active in a number of areas, these include the testing and evaluation of MPPC photosensors, ECAL construction, the design and development of a light injection system for calibration purposes and the development of aqeuous liquid scintillators.
P0D ECal event reconstruction is the responsibility of the Sheffield T2K group which has also played a leading role in the optimization studies that led to the final design of the so-called P0D ECal, the electromagnetic calorimeters surrounding the central pi-zero detector.
Choose one of the links above to learn more about the activities of the Sheffield T2K group.