Neutriono oscillation with the T2K experiment

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T2K is a long baseline neutrino oscillation project due to be commissioned in 2009 and located in Japan. The neutrino oscillation arises from the coupling between the neutrino flavors (tau neutrino, muon neutrino and electron neutrino) and the corresponding neutrino mass eigenstates. The probability P(nu[i] -> nu[j]) of neutrino oscillation between two neutrino flavors nu[i] and nu[j] depends on the corresponding mixing angle theta[ij] between these two neutrinos, where {i,j} runs over the three neutrino flavors, on the difference in the squares of the masses deltam-squared[ij] of the two neutrinos nu[i] and nu[j], on the energy E of the neutrino nu[i], and on the distance L between the source of the neutrino nu[i] and the detector apparatus. In the T2K experiment, the distance L is known and the energy E can be measured with high accuracy. The primary goal is to measure for the first time the mixing angle theta[13] by detecting the appearance of electron neutrinos from an initial beam of muon neutrinos produced 295 Km away at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (JPARC) facilities in Tokai. The project also includes search for a non-zero CP-violating phase, and measurement of theta[23] and deltam-squared[23]. A near detector (ND280) located at 280 m from the proton-target interaction point will be used to measure the initial flux of muon neutrinos and to estimate sources of background to the electron neutrino appearance. The Canadian T2K group is responsible for the construction of several components of the ND280 detector, and NSERC has funded a 3-year grant (2006-2008) for this project. I have recently joined this group and, therefore, I am not a co-applicant in the T2K project grant application submitted in the last NSERC grant competition in 2005. In this proposal, I will be applying for a 2-year individual grant to allow me to synchronize my operating expenses with the existing T2K operating project grant. The proposal will be basically for support of HQP training and travel expenses, since the funds for R&D and other correlated tasks already exist through a NSERC-funded RTI grant for T2K.