XXXI International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics

Measurement of K+ production in charged-current neutrino interactions in the T2K experiment

21 Jun 2024, 17:30

2h

Near Aula Magna (U6 building) (University of Milano-Bicocca)

Poster Neutrino interactions Poster session and reception 2

Speaker

Katarzyna Kowalik (NCBJ)

Description

Kaon production cross sections provide an important constraint on $K^{+}$ production by atmospheric neutrinos in current and future  proton decay searches. Modern neutrino-nucleus event generators largely depend on theoretical models for the descriptions of backgrounds due to kaons and need to be verified by measurements. 
We search for $K^{+}$ production in charged-current neutrino interactions inside the scintillator-based fine-grained detector of the T2K experiment. The event rate for these processes is low compared to pion production channels because of Cabibbo suppression and the relatively large kaon mass. T2K measures this process at low neutrino energies close to the threshold for strangeness production where existing measurements from bubble chambers have limited statistics. Events with a $K^{+}$ are identified in T2K by studying the energy deposition of tracks in the Time Projection Chamber. This poster will show the latest results for the selected kaon sample together with comparisons to different models. It will also discuss the method used to estimate the backgrounds and evaluate a one-bin cross section in the restricted phase-space.

Presentation materials

KKowalik_Kaon_Neutrino2024.pdf