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02-2-1034-2001/2002
Priority:1
Status: Approved for completion
in 2002

Hadron Production Studies for the Neutrino Factory
and for the Atmospheric Neutrino Flux
( HARP, PS 214)

Leader:

G. Chelkov
S. Bunyatov

Scientific Programme:

HARP:
Measurements of secondary hadrons produced on thin and thick nuclear targets by beams of protons and pions with the momentum in the range 2 to 15 GeV/c are proposed to be carried out over the full solid angle at CERN`s PS. The main motivation is twofold: to acquire adequate knowledge of pion yields for an optimal design of the recently proposed intense neutrino source based on muon decay in a muon storage ring (neutrino factory) and to improve substantially the calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux which is needed for a refined interpretation of the evidence for neutrino oscillation from the study of atmospheric neutrinos in present and forthcoming experiments.
Additional motivations are measurement of the yield of low-momentum backward-going pions, which could be used for a high-intensity stopped-muon source as a by-product of the neutrino factory, and a better prediction of the fluxes in conventional neutrino beams, such as the neutrino beam from the KEK 12 GeV/c Proton Synchrotron, important for the interpretation of the results of the K2K experiment, and at the low-energy (8 GeV/c) booster at Fermilab, used for the MiniBooNe experiment.
   The responsibility of the JINR group in the HARP experiment is
- Refurbishing, installation, commisioning and operation of the NOMAD drift chambers in the HARP experiment.
- Assembling, testing and start of operation of the electromagnetic calorimeter, the muon identifier, the cosmic wall and the beam TOF system, development of the DAQ, monitoring, reconstruction and simulation software.
NOMAD:
The main goal of the NOMAD experiment is the search for neutrino oscillations in a wide-band neutrino beam from CERN SPS. It is to be attained by detecting interactions in a predominantely neutrino beam charged current (CC) by observing the production of the --lepton through its various decay modes by means of kinematical criteria (so-called "appearance" neutrino oscillation search).
      Search for , e and e oscillations. The final NOMAD results on the search for and e oscillations have been published. The analysis of the event sample corresponding to 1.3 million CC interactions yielded no evidence for the oscillation signal in the m 2 range of 1 < m 2 < 100 (eV 2). The NOMAD limits are an order of magnitude better than the previous best results.
      Non-Oscillation Physics. A dedicated study of strange particle production in neutrino interactions has been performed. The statistics of this event sample is about an order of magnitude larger than that of previous bubble chamber experiments, while the quality of event reconstruction is comparable. Detailed measurements of the 0 polarization in CC interactions have been performed. The first measurement of the 0 polarization in neutrino interactions has been reported. Yields of neutral strange particles (K0S, Lambda0, 0) in CC interactions have been measured. Decays of resonances and heavy hyperons with identified K0S and Lambda 0 in the final state have been analyzed. Clear signals corresponding to K* ±, S* ±, - and S0 have been observed.

Expected main results in 2002:

List of Activities
  Activity or project Spokespersons
Status
  HARP, PS214 G. Chelkov
S. Bunyatov
Data taking
Data analysis
  NOMAD, WA96 S. Bunyatov
Data analysis

Collaboration   
Country or international
organization 		City Institute or Laboratory
CERN
Belgium Louvain-la-Neuve UCL
Bulgaria Sofia US
France Paris Univ. VI-VII
Germany Dortmund UNIDO
Spain Valencia UV
Italy Bari Univ., INFN
Legnaro INFN
Milan Univ.
Naples Univ., INFN
Padua Univ.
Rome Univ., INFN
Trieste Univ., INFN
Russia Moscow LPI RAS
Protvino SRC-IHEP
Troitsk INR RAS
Switzerland Geneva UniGe
United Kingdom Didcot RAL
Oxford Univ.
Sheffield Univ.
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