Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 1

The NOA Experiment

P5 Meeting

SLAC

21 February 2008

Gary Feldman

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 2

What is NOA? NOA is a second-generation experiment on the NuMI

beamline, which is optimized for the detection of e oscillations. It will give an order of magnitude improvement over MINOS

in measurements of e appearance and disappearance. NOA is a “totally active” tracking liquid scintillator

calorimeter, sited off-axis to take advantage of a narrow-band beam.

The NOA project also includes accelerator upgrades to bring the beam power from 400 kW to 700 kW.

NOA’s unique feature is its long baseline, which gives it sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering.

NOA is complementary to both T2K and Daya Bay.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 3

NOA SiteAsh River

Minneapolis

Duluth

International Falls

Fermilab

Ash River

Minneapolis

Duluth

International Falls

FermilabAsh River

VoyageursNational Park(shaded brown)

Ash River

VoyageursNational Park(shaded brown)

The Ash River site is the furthestavailable site from Fermilab alongthe NuMI beamline. This maximizesNOA’s sensitivity to the mass ordering.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 4

NOA Basic Detector Element Liquid scintillator in a 4 cm wide, 6 cm deep, 15.7 m long, highly reflective PVC cell.

Light is collected in a U-shaped 0.7 mm wavelength-shifting fiber, both ends of which terminate in a pixel of a 32-pixel avalanche photodiode (APD).

The APD has peak quantum efficiency of 85%. It will be run at a gain of 100. It must be cooled to -15oC and requires a very low noise amplifier.

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Far Detector

There are 1003 planes, for a total mass of 15 kT. There is enough room in the building for 18 kT, which can be built if we can preserve half of our contingency. The detector can start taking data as soon as blocks are filled and the electronics connected.

An admirer

The cells are made from 32-cell extrusions.

12 extrusion modules make up a plane. The planes alternate horizontal and vertical.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 6

NOA Timeline May 2002 1st Workshop Jun 2002 Letter of Intent Mar 2004 Proposal to the Fermilab PAC Mar 2005 Revised Proposal to the PAC Apr 2005 Fermilab Stage 1 Approval Nov 2005 CD-0 Granted Feb 2006 Recommended by NuSAG Oct 2006 Recommended by P5 May 2007 CD-1 Granted Oct 2007 Passed CD-2/3a Review May 2008 CD-2/3a Granted Nov 2008 CD-3b Granted Apr 2009 Start of Construction Jun 2011 Far Detector Building Beneficial Occupancy Aug 2012 1st 2.5 kT of the Far Detector Online Jan 2014 Full Far Detector Online

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Funding Profiles

With this profile, we could advance the schedule by 10 months.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 8

Reactor vs. Accelerator

Peter explained the physics of neutrino oscillations well, so I need not repeat it. However, I would like to expand on a couple of points.

Reactor and accelerator experiments do not measure the same thing. Reactors are sensitive to sin2(213), while accelerators are sensitive to sin2(23) sin2(213). If 23 ≠ /4, these quantities can be quite different.

The good news is that a comparison of NOA and Daya Bay can break this ambiguity and determine whether 3 couples more to or .

2 sin2(23) .vs sin2(223)

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

0.90 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1.00

sin2(223)

2sin

2 (23)

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95% CL Resolution of the 23 Ambiguity

The ambiguity canbe resolved in the region below and to the right of the curves.

The sensitivity depends on themass ordering, , and the sign of theambiguity itself. The curves repre-sent an average over these parameters.

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Measurement of sin2(223)

This calculationuses NOA’s excellent energyresolution on

CC events.

It is a parameterized calculation, which needs to be redone witha full reconstruction.

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Sensitivity to sin2(213) ≠ 0

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 12

Parameters Consistent with a 2% e

Oscillation Probability

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 13

Strategy for Determining the Mass Ordering

If the CP-violating term goes in the same direction as the matter effect, then there is no ambiguity and NOA can determine the mass ordering by itself, given sufficient integrated beam.

If the CP-violating term goes in the opposite direction as the matter effect, then there is an inherent ambiguity and NOA cannot determine the mass ordering by itself. But it can be determined, in principle, by comparing NOA and T2K. If the neutrino oscillation probability is larger in NOA than

in T2K, it is the normal mass ordering; if the opposite, it is the inverted mass ordering.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 14

95% CL Resolution of the Mass OrderingNOA Alone

Normal Ordering Inverted Ordering

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 15

Combining Data with T2K

When it is useful to combine data with T2K, I will assume that T2K will only run a neutrino beam because This is what they have proposed to do. They have less incentive to run antineutrinos since

They have too short a baseline to get information on the mass ordering.

The antineutrino rates at T2K energies are relatively somewhat lower than at NOA energies.

The complementarity between the two experiments is better statistically if T2K runs only neutrinos since it consists of comparing like runs — neutrinos to neutrinos or antineutrinos to antineutrinos.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 16

95% CL Resolution of the Mass OrderingNOA Plus T2K

Normal Ordering Inverted Ordering

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vs. 13 Contours: Best Possible

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vs. 13 Contours: Worst Possible T2K and NOA Alone

Profiles,not limits

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vs. 13 Contours: Worst Possible T2K and NOA Combined

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Conclusions I

Due to its long baseline and ease of running antineutrinos, NOA will produce important results unavailable from any other experiment in its time frame.

It is complementary to both T2K and Daya Bay. What was to become NOA had its first workshop in May

2002. It has now passed all of its reviews and is ready to start construction in the spring of 2009, assuming funding will be available. All of the other major US neutrino accelerator initiatives being discussed today are in the workshop phase.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 21

Conclusions II

NOA will be the anchor of the US accelerator neutrino program. In addition to its unique physics contributions, It will provide the incentive to increase the NuMI beam

power from 400 to 700 kW, and then to either 1.2 MW (SNuMI) or 2.3 MW (Project X), depending on available funding.

It will provide a base detector, allowing the necessary liquid argon prototype, LAr5, to double the capacity of NuMI program.

It will provide the continuity necessary to keep the program running smoothly, e.g. training experimental and accelerator physicists.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 22

Backup Slides

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 23

What NOA Can Do If …

sin2(213) 0.1 Determine the mass ordering for half of the

space at the 1-3 level; combining with T2K, determine the mass ordering for the other half of the range at 1-2 level.

Exclude about half of the space at the 1-2 level.

Combining with Daya Bay, determine whether 3 couples more strongly to or at the 2 level if sin2(223) < 0.97.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 24

What NOA Can Do If …

sin2(213) 0.06 Determine the mass ordering for half of the

space at the 1-2 level; combining with T2K, determine the mass ordering for the other half of the range at 1-2 level.

Exclude about half of the space at the 1-2 level.

Combining with Daya Bay, determine whether 3 couples more strongly to or at the 2 level if sin2(223) < 0.94.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 25

What NOA Can Do If …

sin2(213) 0.03 Determine the mass ordering for a quarter of the

space at the 1 level. Exclude about half of the space at the 1-2

level.

Gary Feldman P5 Meeting 21 February 2008 26

What NOA Can Do If …

sin2(213) 0.01 See a signal at the 1-3 level, confirming weak

signals seen in other experiments.

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What We Know and What We Don’t Know

Don’t know

Know to someextent

O. Mena and S. Parke, hep-ph/0312131

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NOA Near Detector

4.1 m

2.9 m

14.4 m

Veto region

Target region

Shower containment region

Muon catcher1 m iron

209 T126 T totally active23 T fiducial

The Near Detector will beplaced in a cavern off of the MINOS access tunnel on the same off axis line as the fardetector.

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Event Quality

Longitudinal sampling is 0.15 X0, which gives excellent -e separation.

A 2-GeV muon is 60 planes long.

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e CC event

epe-p+

E=2.5GeV

Ee=1.9GeV

Ep=1.1GeV

E=0.2GeV

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Background NC event

Npo

E=10.6 GeV

Ep=1.04GeV

Eo =1.97GeV