Water Cherenkov neutrino experiments have played a crucial role in neutrino discoveries over the years and provide a well-established and affordable way to instrument large target masses. The largest uncertainty in the most recent T2K oscillation results is from the Super-Kamiokande detector systematic errors in the oscillated event samples. As neutrino experiments move from discovery to precision measurements, a comprehensive understanding of water Cherenkov detectors becomes increasingly important. To help address these uncertainties in experiments such as T2K and Hyper-Kamiokande, a test bed for current and new technologies has been constructed and is operating at CERN.
The test bed; the Water Cherenkov Test Experiment (WCTE); a small-scale water Cherenkov detector which is currently operating in the T9 experimental area at CERN. WCTE is being used to study water Cherenkov detector response to well understood hadron and electron beams with new photosensor technologies. The detector is instrumented with 92 multi-PMT (mPMT) modules consisting of 19, 3-inch PMTs each. The detector is also running a newly developed calibration deployment system, and several calibration sources prototyped for future experiments. These calibration techniques with known particle fluxes will be used to demonstrate a 1% level calibration for GeV scale neutrino interactions. Other measurements from WCTE include those of Cherenkov light production, pion scattering and secondary neutron production, to provide direct inputs to the T2K, Super-Kamiokande and Hyper-Kamiokande experiments. This talk will discuss the current oscillation results from T2K and the predictions for Hyper-Kamiokande. Also presented is the WCTE detector design and operational status, with a first look at the physics and calibration data!
https://liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/97123885137?pwd=xCfqiQEg9Bbk8dk6h51pzbhit3eiQr.1
Paolo Beltrame