Speaker
Mr
Davide Sgalaberna
(ETH Zurich)
Description
In the last decades, several anomalies in different neutrino experiments have been observed
that could be explained assuming the existence of sterile neutrinos.
Sterile neutrinos are right handed particles %, with a mass at the eV scale
that do not interact via the electroweak force but can mix with the Standard Model active neutrinos.
A first search for sterile neutrino oscillations at the T2K near detector
(ND280), located at 280~m from the target, through the nu_e disappearance channel (nu_e
-> \nu_s) is presented.
nu_e interactions at ND280 are selected exploiting the combined
particle identification performances of a Time Projection Chamber and of a set of
electromagnetic calorimeters.
A 3+1 sterile neutrino model that can lead to nu_e
disappearance has been tested. All the data collected up to summer 2013, corresponding to an
exposure of 5.9 x 10^{20} protons on target
(~10% of T2K final goal) have been analysed.
Exclusion regions are built as a function of the oscillation amplitude (sin^2{2theta}) and the squared mass splitting between the new state and the SM neutrinos (Delta m^2).
The region sin^2{2theta} > 0.2 and Delta
m^2 > 8 eV^2 is excluded at 95% CL.
Primary author
Mr
Davide Sgalaberna
(ETH Zurich)
Co-authors
Mr
Claudio Giganti
(LPNHE Paris)
Mr
Javier Caravaca
(IFAE Barcelona)