Maury Goodman's October 2015 long-baseline neutrino newsletter

*** Long-Baseline Neutrino News            October 2015
noble issue

*** Two
subscribers win Nobel Prize and make us
happy
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/
Most
subscribers already know that the 2015 Nobel prize in physics
was awarded to
Takaaki Kajita (Super-K) & Art McDonald (SNO) "for
the discovery of neutrino
oscillations, which shows that neutrinos
have mass".  This wasn't unexpected
for many of our
readers:
http://www.hep.anl.gov/ndk/longbnews/0907.html#opinion
In many Latin
American countries, a "happy meal" is known as
"McDonald's Cajita Feliz"; we're
all happy for McDonald & Kajita.
(See the box at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Meal)

*** Previous neutrino Nobel winners
for neutrino physics
1979 Glashow, Salam and Weinberg for predicting neutral
currents
1988 Lederman, Schwartz and Steinberger for 2 neutrinos
1995 Reines
for the detection of the neutrino
2002 Davis and Koshiba for astrophysical
neutrinos

*** Neon --  More previous Nobel awards to neutrino physicists
The
1938 award went to Fermi who named the neutrino, and 1945
to Pauli who
postulated it.  The 1984 award went to Carlo Rubbia
who led ICARUS, and has
joined SBN and DUNE.  And Jerry Friedman
and Henry Kendall, who discovered
partons, switched to a Fermilab
experiment to measure neutral current structure
functions using
neon flash chambers in the neutrino line (E594).

*** Argon
-- First neutrinos in MicroBooNE
MicroBooNE started receiving its very first
neutrino beam from the
Fermilab Booster accelerator on 15 October 2015 in its
liquid Ar
detector.   They've  released the first neutrino event
candidates
that the automated neutrino event reconstruction
identified:
http://www-microboone.fnal.gov/first-neutrinos/

*** Neutrino rap
music with no bells
A paucity of musical instruments allows one to listen to
rap music
and follow the technical details concerning neutrino
oscillation.
http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2015/10/tiny-ghosts-neutrinos-music-video/
It
honors Kajita and McDonald, but concludes, "That crazy Ray Davis
was right all
along."  But I think it is wrong about zillions of $.

*** Xenon -- NSAC: 
Maybe Xenon, maybe
not
http://science.energy.gov/~/media/np/nsac/pdf/2015LRP/2015_LRPNS_091815.pdf
Recommendation
II of the 2015 NSAC Long Range report for nuclear
physics is: "We recommend the
timely development and deployment
of a U.S.-led ton-scale neutrinoless (two)
beta decay experiment."

*** Argon again --- Prototype Progress ProtoDUNE and
35 ton
The CERN SPSC has recommended approval for P-351 (ProtoDUNE) as a
new
project in the CERN neutrino platform.  This is a full-scale
engineering
prototype liquid Argon detector to validate full-size
components and do a
charge beam calibration of the detector response.
In the 35-ton prototype at
FNAL, the TPC installation has been
completed with the attachment of field cage
panels and the long
drift cathode to the TPC frame.  It is a cramped work
place.

*** Helium -- Isotope Ratio and the number of
neutrinos
ArXiv:1510.02801 discusses how to use Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
to
test the SM.  Using He and D measurements, it extracts N_eff =
3.01
+0.95-0.76 at 95%CL.  An excellent review of cosmo & nus is
at
https://indico.bnl.gov/contributionDisplay.py?sessionId=8&contribId=38&confId=1282

***
Radon, Krypton and Unonoctium (aka element 118)
Radon affects the background
gamma rate expected in underground
laboratories and can have a seasonal
variation due to ventilation
issues.  At Gran Sasso the level is 20-80 Bq/m^3,
but it can be
as low as 3 (Boulby) or as high as 50-100 (Canfranc).  See,
e.g.,
https://indico.bnl.gov/getFile.py/access?contribId=69&sessionId=9&resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=1282
For
the noble gases krypton and element 118, you're on your own.

*** The NuMI
beamline
Everything you want to know about one nu beam. 
ArXiv:1507.06690

*** Muon Beam discussion at CERN 18 November
On the 18th
Nov 2015 there will be a meeting at CERN to discuss
scientific potential of mu
beams and the technology required to
deliver the science. 
https://indico.cern.ch/event/450863/

*** Notable New References   - Click
last line for links
<-> Minerva, "Measurement of nue quasielastic scattering
on
hydrocarbon at 3.6 GeV", arXiv:1509.05729
<-> C. Andreopoulos et al., "The
GENIE Neutrino Monte Carlo
Generator:  Physics and User Manual",
arXiv:1510.05494
<-> Double Chooz Collaboration, "theta-13 in DC using n
captures
on H with novel background rejection techniques."
arXiv:1510.08937
<-> M. Masud et al., "Probing CP violation signal at DUNE
in
presence of NSI (of nu)", arXiv:1510.08261
<-> Super-K, "Measurement of the
atmospheric nu flux by Super-K"
arXiv:1510.08127
<-> J. Amaro & E. Arriola,
"Axial-vector dominance predictions in
quasielastic neutrino-nucleus
scattering", arXiv:1510.07532
<-> Y. Arcos & S. Sahu, "Earth matter effect on
GeV neutrino
propagation", arXiv:1510.07103
<-> S. Axani et al., "KPipe...",
arXiv:1510.06994
<-> L. Stanco, "Search for sterile neutrinos at OPERA and
other
Long-Baseline Experiments", arXiv:1510.04151
<-> M. Bonesini, "Progress
of MICE experiment", arXiv:1510.08825
<-> C. Grant & B. Littlejohn,
"Opportunities with decay-at-rest
neutrinos from decay-in-flight beams",
arXiv:1510.08431
<-> P. Sturrock et al., "Concerning the variability of
beta-decay
measurements", arXiv:1510.05996
<-> D. Franco et al., "Solar
neutrino detection in a large volume
double phase liquid argon experiment",
arXiv:1510.04196
<-> Y. Oyama et al., "Constraints on the neutrino parameters
by
future cosmological 21 cm line and precise CMB polarization
observations",
arXiv:1510.03806, Error on N_eff 0.06-0.09 95%CL
<-> O. Kharlanov & A. Lobanov,
"Peculiar seasoning in the nu d/n
asymmetry: where and when to look for
spices?"
arXiv:1510.985
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CAVEAT
http://www.hep.anl.gov/ndk/longbnews/ maury.goodman@anl.gov