Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-25-2008

Abstract

The atmospheric neutrino background for proton decay via p→e+π0 in ring imaging water Cherenkov detectors is studied with an artificial accelerator neutrino beam for the first time. In total, 3.14×105 neutrino events corresponding to about 10 megaton-years of atmospheric neutrino interactions were collected by a 1000 ton water Cherenkov detector (KT). The KT charged-current single π0 production data are well reproduced by simulation programs of neutrino and secondary hadronic interactions used in the Super-Kamiokande (SK) proton decay search. The obtained p→e+π0 background rate by the KT data for SK from the atmospheric neutrinos whose energies are below 3 GeV is 1.63-0.33+0.42(stat)-0.51+0.45(syst)(megaton-year)- 1. This result is also relevant to possible future, megaton-scale water Cherenkov detectors. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

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