Experimental HEP Seminar

T2K: Beaming Neutrinos from Sea to Sea

Alysia Marino

University of Toronto

Over the past decade compelling evidence has emerged that neutrinos have non-zero masses and that neutrinos change from one flavour to another. Intense neutrino beams generated by particle accelerators are now being used in order to more precisely probe the spectrum of neutrino masses and mixing.

This talk will focus on the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) neutrino oscillation experiment, now under construction in Japan. Starting in the spring of 2009, T2K will utilize a beam of muon neutrinos produced at the new J-PARC accelerator complex. With two neutrino detectors, one located near the origin of the beam, and another detector located 295 km away, T2K will look for the disappearance of muon neutrinos and the appearance of electron neutrinos over a long distance. The current status, physics goals, and future measurement potential of T2K will be presented.