Search for neutral-current induced single photon production at the ND280 near detector in T2K
Authors: Abe K , Akutsu R , Ali A , Andreopoulos C , Anthony L , Antonova M , Aoki S , Ariga A , Ashida Y , Awataguchi Y , Azuma Y , Ban S , Barbi M , Barker G J , Barr G , Barry C , Batkiewicz-Kwasniak M , Bench F , Berardi V , Berkman S , Berner R M , Berns L , Bhadra S , Bienstock S , Blondel A , Bolognesi S , Bourguille B , Boyd S B , Brailsford D , Bravar A , Bronner C , Avanzini M Buizza , Calcutt J , Campbell T , Cao S , Cartwright S L , Catanesi M G , Cervera A , Chappell A , Checchia C , Cherdack D , Chikuma N , Christodoulou G , Coleman J , Collazuol G , Coplowe D , Cudd A , Dabrowska A , Rosa G De , Dealtry T , Denner P F , Dennis S R , Densham C , Lodovico F Di , Dokania N , Dolan S , Drapier O , Duffy K E , Dumarchez J , Dunne P , Emery-Schrenk S , Ereditato A , Fernandez P , Feusels T , Finch A J , Fiorentini G A , Fiorillo G , Francois C , Friend M , Fujii Y , Fujita R , Fukuda D , Fukuda Y , Gameil K , Giganti C , Gizzarelli F , Golan T , Gonin M , Hadley D R , Haigh J T , Hamacher-Baumann P , Hartz M , Hasegawa T , Hastings N C , Hayashino T , Hayato Y , Hiramoto A , Hogan M , Holeczek J , Van N T Hong , Hosomi F , Ichikawa A K , Ikeda M , Inoue T , Intonti R A , Ishida T , Ishii T , Ishitsuka M , Iwamoto K , Izmaylov A , Jamieson B , Jesus C , Jiang M , Johnson S , Jonsson P , Jung C K , Kabirnezhad M , Kaboth A C , Kajita T , Kakuno H , Kameda J , Karlen D , Katori T , Kato Y , Kearns E , Khabibullin M , Khotjantsev A , Kim H , Kim J , King S , Kisiel J , Knight A , Knox A , Kobayashi T , Koch L , Koga T , Konaka A , Kormos L L , Koshio Y , Kowalik K , Kubo H , Kudenko Y , Kurjata R , Kutter T , Kuze M , Labarga L , Lagoda J , Lamoureux M , Lasorak P , Laveder M , Lawe M , Licciardi M , Lindner T , Litchfield R P , Li X , Longhin A , Lopez J P , Lou T , Ludovici L , Lu X , Lux T , Magaletti L , Mahn K , Malek M , Manly S , Maret L , Marino A D , Martin J F , Martins P , Maruyama T , Matsubara T , Matveev V , Mavrokoridis K , Ma W Y , Mazzucato E , McCarthy M , McCauley N , McFarland K S , McGrew C , Mefodiev A , Metelko C , Mezzetto M , Minamino A , Mineev O , Mine S , Miura M , Moriyama S , Morrison J , Mueller Th A , Murphy S , Nagai Y , Nakadaira T , Nakahata M , Nakajima Y , Nakamura A , Nakamura K G , Nakamura K , Nakamura K D , Nakanishi Y , Nakayama S , Nakaya T , Nakayoshi K , Nantais C , Niewczas K , Nishikawa K , Nishimura Y , Nonnenmacher T S , Novella P , Nowak J , O’Keeffe H M , O’Sullivan L , Okumura K , Okusawa T , Oser S M , Owen R A , Oyama Y , Palladino V , Palomino J L , Paolone V , Parker W C , Paudyal P , Pavin M , Payne D , Pickering L , Pidcott C , Guerra E S Pinzon , Pistillo C , Popov B , Porwit K , Posiadala-Zezula M , Pritchard A , Quilain B , Radermacher T , Radicioni E , Ratoff P N , Reinherz-Aronis E , Riccio C , Rondio E , Rossi B , Roth S , Rubbia A , Ruggeri A C , Rychter A , Sakashita K , Sánchez F , Sasaki S , Scholberg K , Schwehr J , Scott M , Seiya Y , Sekiguchi T , Sekiya H , Sgalaberna D , Shah R , Shaikhiev A , Shaker F , Shaw D , Shaykina A , Shiozawa M , Smirnov A , Smy M , Sobczyk J T , Sobel H , Sonoda Y , Steinmann J , Stewart T , Stowell P , Suvorov S , Suzuki A , Suzuki S Y , Suzuki Y , Sztuc A A , Tacik R , Tada M , Takeda A , Takeuchi Y , Tamura R , Tanaka H K , Tanaka H A , Thompson L F , Toki W , Touramanis C , Tsui K M , Tsukamoto T , Tzanov M , Uchida Y , Uno W , Vagins M , Vallari Z , Vargas D , Vasseur G , Vilela C , Vladisavljevic T , Volkov V V , Wachala T , Walker J , Wang Y , Wark D , Wascko M O , Weber A , Wendell R , Wilking M J , Wilkinson C , Wilson J R , Wilson R J , Wret C , Yamada Y , Yamamoto K , Yamasu S , Yanagisawa C , Yang G , Yano T , Yasutome K , Yen S , Yershov N , Yokoyama M , Yoshida T , Yu M , Zalewska A , Zalipska J , Zaremba K , Zarnecki G , Ziembicki M , Zimmerman E D , Zito M , Zsoldos S , Zykova A 
Published: May 2019

Neutrino neutral-current (NC) induced single photon production is a sub-leading order process for accelerator-based neutrino beam experiments including T2K. It is, however, an important process to understand because it is a background for electron (anti)neutrino appearance oscillation experiments. Here, we performed the first search of this process below 1 GeV using the fine-grained detector at the T2K ND280 off-axis near detector. By reconstructing single photon kinematics from electron–positron pairs, we achieved 95% pure gamma ray sample from

5.738
×

10

20

protons-on-targets neutrino mode data. We do not find positive evidence of NC induced single photon production in this sample. We set the model-dependent upper limit on the cross-section for this process, at

0.114
×

10

−
38

cm2 (90% C.L.) per nucleon, using the J-PARC off-axis neutrino beam with an average energy of

E

ν

∼
0.6

GeV. This is the first limit on this process below 1 GeV which is important for current and future oscillation experiments looking for electron neutrino appearance oscillation signals.