The Super-Kamiokande and T2K Collaborations present a joint measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters from their atmospheric and beam neutrino data. It uses a common interaction model for events overlapping in neutrino energy and correlated detector systematic uncertainties between the two datasets, which are found to be compatible. Using 3244.4 days of atmospheric data and a beam exposure of 19.7(16.3)×1020 protons on target in (anti)neutrino mode, the analysis finds a 1.9σ exclusion of CP conservation (defined as JCP=0) and a 1.2σ exclusion of the inverted mass ordering. Published by the American Physical Society 2025
We present a measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters with the Super-Kamiokande detector using atmospheric neutrinos from the complete pure-water SK I-V (April 1996-July 2020) data set, including events from an expanded fiducial volume. The data set corresponds to 6511.3 live days and an exposure of 484.2 kiloton-years. Measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters $\Delta m^2_{32}$, $\sin^2\theta_{23}$, $\sin^2 \theta_{13}$, $\delta_{CP}$, and the preference for the neutrino mass ordering are presented with atmospheric neutrino data alone, and with constraints on $\sin^2 \theta_{13}$ from reactor neutrino experiments. Our analysis including constraints on $\sin^2 \theta_{13}$ favors the normal mass ordering at the 92.3% level.
The first loading of gadolinium (Gd) into Super-Kamiokande in 2020 was successful, and the neutron capture efficiency on Gd reached 50%. To further increase the Gd neutron capture efficiency to 75%, 26.1 tons of Gd2(SO4)3⋅8H2O was additionally loaded into Super-Kamiokande (SK) from May 31 to July 4, 2022. As the amount of loaded Gd2(SO4)3⋅8H2O was doubled compared to the first loading, the capacity of the powder dissolving system was doubled. We also developed new batches of gadolinium sulfate with even further reduced radioactive impurities. In addition, a more efficient screening method was devised and implemented to evaluate these new batches of Gd2(SO4)3⋅8H2O. Following the second loading, the Gd concentration in SK was measured to be 333.5±2.5 ppm via an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS). From the mean neutron capture time constant of neutrons from an Am/Be calibration source, the Gd concentration was independently measured to be 332.7 ± 6.8(sys.) ± 1.1(stat.) ppm, consistent with the AAS result. Furthermore, during the loading the Gd concentration was monitored continually using the capture time constant of each spallation neutron produced by cosmic-ray muons, and the final neutron capture efficiency was shown to become 1.5 times higher than that of the first loaded phase, as expected.
A search for proton decay into e(+)/mu(+) and a. meson has been performed using data from a 0.373 Mton center dot year exposure (6050.3 live days) of Super-Kamiokande. Compared to previous searches this work introduces an improved model of the intranuclear. interaction cross section, resulting in a factor of 2 reduction in uncertainties from this source and similar to 10% increase in signal efficiency. No significant data excess was found above the expected number of atmospheric neutrino background events resulting in no indication of proton decay into either mode. Lower limits on the proton partial lifetime of 1.4 x 10(34) years for p -> e(+)eta and 7.3 x 10(33) years for p -> mu(+)eta at the 90% CL were set. These limits are around 1.5 times longer than our previous study and are the most stringent to date.
Neutrinos from very nearby supernovae, such as Betelgeuse, are expected to generate more than ten million events over 10 s in Super-Kamokande (SK). At such large event rates, the buffers of the SK analog-to-digital conversion board (QBEE) will overflow, causing random loss of data that is critical for understanding the dynamics of the supernova explosion mechanism. In order to solve this problem, two new DAQ modules were developed to aid in the observation of very nearby supernovae. The first of these, the SN module, is designed to save only the number of hit PMTs during a supernova burst and the second, the Veto module, prescales the high rate neutrino events to prevent the QBEE from overflowing based on information from the SN module. In the event of a very nearby supernova, these modules allow SK to reconstruct the time evolution of the neutrino event rate from beginning to end using both QBEE and SN module data. This paper presents the development and testing of these modules together with an analysis of supernova-like data generated with a flashing laser diode. We demonstrate that the Veto module successfully prevents DAQ overflows for Betelgeuse-like supernovae as well as the long-term stability of the new modules. During normal running the Veto module is found to issue DAQ vetos a few times per month resulting in a total dead time less than 1 ms, and does not influence ordinary operations. Additionally, using simulation data we find that supernovae closer than 800 pc will trigger Veto module resulting in a prescaling of the observed neutrino data.
An analysis of solar neutrino data from the fourth phase of Super-Kamiokande~(SK-IV) from October 2008 to May 2018 is performed and the results are presented. The observation time of the data set of SK-IV corresponds to $2970$~days and the total live time for all four phases is $5805$~days. For more precise solar neutrino measurements, several improvements are applied in this analysis: lowering the data acquisition threshold in May 2015, further reduction of the spallation background using neutron clustering events, precise energy reconstruction considering the time variation of the PMT gain. The observed number of solar neutrino events in $3.49$--$19.49$ MeV electron kinetic energy region during SK-IV is $65,443^{+390}_{-388}\,(\mathrm{stat.})\pm 925\,(\mathrm{syst.})$ events. Corresponding $\mathrm{^{8}B}$ solar neutrino flux is $(2.314 \pm 0.014\, \rm{(stat.)} \pm 0.040 \, \rm{(syst.)}) \times 10^{6}~\mathrm{cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}}$, assuming a pure electron-neutrino flavor component without neutrino oscillations. The flux combined with all SK phases up to SK-IV is $(2.336 \pm 0.011\, \rm{(stat.)} \pm 0.043 \, \rm{(syst.)}) \times 10^{6}~\mathrm{cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}}$. Based on the neutrino oscillation analysis from all solar experiments, including the SK $5805$~days data set, the best-fit neutrino oscillation parameters are $\rm{sin^{2} \theta_{12,\,solar}} = 0.306 \pm 0.013 $ and $\Delta m^{2}_{21,\,\mathrm{solar}} = (6.10^{+ 0.95}_{-0.81}) \times 10^{-5}~\rm{eV}^{2}$, with a deviation of about 1.5$\sigma$ from the $\Delta m^{2}_{21}$ parameter obtained by KamLAND. The best-fit neutrino oscillation parameters obtained from all solar experiments and KamLAND are $\sin^{2} \theta_{12,\,\mathrm{global}} = 0.307 \pm 0.012 $ and $\Delta m^{2}_{21,\,\mathrm{global}} = (7.50^{+ 0.19}_{-0.18}) \times 10^{-5}~\rm{eV}^{2}$.
Among multi-messenger observations of the next galactic core-collapse supernova, Super-Kamiokande (SK) plays a critical role in detecting the emitted supernova neutrinos, determining the direction to the supernova (SN), and notifying the astronomical community of these observations in advance of the optical signal. On 2022, SK has increased the gadolinium dissolved in its water target (SK-Gd) and has achieved a Gd concentration of 0.033%, resulting in enhanced neutron detection capability, which in turn enables more accurate determination of the supernova direction. Accordingly, SK-Gd's real-time supernova monitoring system (Abe te al. 2016b) has been upgraded. SK_SN Notice, a warning system that works together with this monitoring system, was released on December 13, 2021, and is available through GCN Notices (Barthelmy et al. 2000). When the monitoring system detects an SN-like burst of events, SK_SN Notice will automatically distribute an alarm with the reconstructed direction to the supernova candidate within a few minutes. In this paper, we present a systematic study of SK-Gd's response to a simulated galactic SN. Assuming a supernova situated at 10 kpc, neutrino fluxes from six supernova models are used to characterize SK-Gd's pointing accuracy using the same tools as the online monitoring system. The pointing accuracy is found to vary from 3-7$^\circ$ depending on the models. However, if the supernova is closer than 10 kpc, SK_SN Notice can issue an alarm with three-degree accuracy, which will benefit follow-up observations by optical telescopes with large fields of view.
We report the first measurement of the atmospheric neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic (NCQE) cross section in the gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande (SK) water Cherenkov detector. In June 2020, SK began a new experimental phase, named SK-Gd, by loading 0.011% by mass of gadolinium into the ultrapure water of the SK detector. The introduction of gadolinium to ultrapure water has the effect of improving the neutron-tagging efficiency. Using a 552.2 day data set from August 2020 to June 2022, we measure the NCQE cross section to be 0.74 $\pm$ 0.22(stat.) $^{+0.85}_{-0.15}$ (syst.) $\times$ 10$^{-38}$ cm$^{2}$/oxygen in the energy range from 160 MeV to 10 GeV, which is consistent with the atmospheric neutrino-flux-averaged theoretical NCQE cross section and the measurement in the SK pure-water phase within the uncertainties. Furthermore, we compare the models of the nucleon-nucleus interactions in water and find that the Binary Cascade model and the Liege Intranuclear Cascade model provide a somewhat better fit to the observed data than the Bertini Cascade model. Since the atmospheric neutrino-oxygen NCQE reactions are one of the main backgrounds in the search for diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB), these new results will contribute to future studies - and the potential discovery - of the DSNB in SK.
We report a search for time variations of the solar ^{8}B neutrino flux using 5804 live days of Super-Kamiokande data collected between May 31, 1996, and May 30, 2018. Super-Kamiokande measured the precise time of each solar neutrino interaction over 22 calendar years to search for solar neutrino flux modulations with unprecedented precision. Periodic modulations are searched for in a dataset comprising five-day interval solar neutrino flux measurements with a maximum likelihood method. We also applied the Lomb-Scargle method to this dataset to compare it with previous reports. The only significant modulation found is due to the elliptic orbit of the Earth around the Sun. The observed modulation is consistent with astronomical data: we measured an eccentricity of (1.53±0.35)%, and a perihelion shift of (-1.5±13.5) days.
We present the results of the charge ratio ($R$) and polarization ($P^{\mu}_{0}$) measurements using the decay electron events collected from 2008 September to 2022 June by the Super-Kamiokande detector. Because of its underground location and long operation, we performed high precision measurements by accumulating cosmic-ray muons. We measured the muon charge ratio to be $R=1.32 \pm 0.02$ $(\mathrm{stat.}{+}\mathrm{syst.})$ at $E_{\mu}\cos \theta_{\mathrm{Zenith}}=0.7^{+0.3}_{-0.2}$ $\mathrm{TeV}$, where $E_{\mu}$ is the muon energy and $\theta_{\mathrm{Zenith}}$ is the zenith angle of incoming cosmic-ray muons. This result is consistent with the Honda flux model while this suggests a tension with the $\pi K$ model of $1.9\sigma$. We also measured the muon polarization at the production location to be $P^{\mu}_{0}=0.52 \pm 0.02$ $(\mathrm{stat.}{+}\mathrm{syst.})$ at the muon momentum of $0.9^{+0.6}_{-0.1}$ $\mathrm{TeV}/c$ at the surface of the mountain; this also suggests a tension with the Honda flux model of $1.5\sigma$. This is the most precise measurement ever to experimentally determine the cosmic-ray muon polarization near $1~\mathrm{TeV}/c$. These measurement results are useful to improve the atmospheric neutrino simulations.
Cosmic-ray muons that enter the Super-Kamiokande detector cause hadronic showers due to spallation in water, producing neutrons and radioactive isotopes. Those are a major background source for studies of MeV-scale neutrinos and searches for rare events. Since 2020, gadolinium was introduced in the ultra-pure water in the Super-Kamiokande detector to improve the detection efficiency of neutrons. In this study, the cosmogenic neutron yield was measured using data acquired during the period after the gadolinium loading. The yield was found to be $(2.76 \pm 0.02\,\mathrm{(stat.) \pm 0.19\,\mathrm{(syst.)}}) \times 10^{-4}\,\mu^{-1} \mathrm{g^{-1} cm^{2}}$ at 259 GeV of average muon energy at the Super-Kamiokande detector.
The rational design of a host material with strong adsorption and excellent electrical conductivity function for sulfur cathode to suppress the shuttle effects of soluble lithium polysulfide (LiPS) is crucial to advance the lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery for future commercial applications. In this work, we designed a three-dimensional (3D) carbon fiber aerogel with graphene-like oxygenated carbon nitrogen (OCN) and TiO2 (OCNF-TiO2) as a sulfur anchoring material for Li-S battery and explored the regulating effects of TiO2 on the electrochemical performances. The OCNF-TiO2/S cathode presents an initial discharge-specific capacity of 1039 mAh/g (0.1C), a rate capacity of 690 mAh/g at 1C, a cycling performance with a capacitance retention of 72.1%, and the decay of 0.13% per cycle after 200 cycles at 0.5C.
The edge turbulence characteristics and the induced radial transport have been investigated in edge localized mode (ELM) suppression by using the n = 4 resonant magnetic perturbation coils on EAST, with q 95 = 3.6 and the electron collisionality ν e ∗ ≈ 0.5. During ELM suppression, the edge turbulence is enhanced dramatically, as measured by the reciprocating probe and the poloidal correlation reflectometry. In the near SOL, the low frequency turbulence (<30 kHz) has a large fluctuation level and propagates along the ion diamagnetic drift direction with a speed of 0.35 km s −1 in the plasma frame; an n = 1 electromagnetic mode around 120 kHz with a small k θ (∼0.15 cm −1 ) appears when the ELM is suppressed; weak broadband turbulence between 40–120 kHz propagates in the electron diamagnetic drift direction with a velocity of 3.4 km s −1 in the plasma frame. During the ELM suppression, the radial turbulent particle flux, calculated in both the time and frequency domains, is much higher (can be up to five times) than that in the inter-ELM phase. Furthermore, the low frequency turbulence (<30 kHz) dominates the cross-field particle transport. The 120 kHz electromagnetic mode also contributes to outward particle flux, which is relatively small. A set of CGYRO simulations are performed to illustrate the nature of the 120 kHz electromagnetic mode and the low frequency turbulence, suggesting that the former is the micro-tearing mode and the latter is the ion temperature gradient mode. The bispectral analysis suggests a strong three-wave coupling between the low frequency and high frequency turbulence (>250 kHz), which could be beneficial to form the observed turbulent transport. The estimated upstream cross-field particle flux is consistent with the total particle flux deposited on divertor targets, demonstrating that the enhanced radial turbulent particle transport is an important mechanism for particle exhaust in ELM suppression.
This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.031802.
We report a search for cosmic-ray boosted dark matter with protons using the 0.37 megaton×years data collected at Super-Kamiokande experiment during the 1996-2018 period (SKI-IV phase). We searched for an excess of proton recoils above the atmospheric neutrino background from the vicinity of the Galactic Center. No such excess is observed, and limits are calculated for two reference models of dark matter with either a constant interaction cross section or through a scalar mediator. This is the first experimental search for boosted dark matter with hadrons using directional information. The results present the most stringent limits on cosmic-ray boosted dark matter and exclude the dark matter-nucleon elastic scattering cross section between 10^{-33}cm^{2} and 10^{-27}cm^{2} for dark matter mass from 1 MeV/c^{2} to 300 MeV/c^{2}.
We report the first search result for the flux of astrophysical electron antineutrinos for energies O(10) MeV in the gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector. In June 2020, gadolinium was introduced to the ultra-pure water of the SK detector in order to detect neutrons more efficiently. In this new experimental phase, SK-Gd, we can search for electron antineutrinos via inverse beta decay with efficient background rejection and higher signal efficiency thanks to the high efficiency of the neutron tagging technique. In this paper, we report the result for the initial stage of SK-Gd with a $22.5\times552$ $\rm kton\cdot day$ exposure at 0.01% Gd mass concentration. No significant excess over the expected background in the observed events is found for the neutrino energies below 31.3 MeV. Thus, the flux upper limits are placed at the 90% confidence level. The limits and sensitivities are already comparable with the previous SK result with pure-water ($22.5 \times 2970 \rm kton\cdot day$) owing to the enhanced neutron tagging.
The sensitivity of a joint oscillation analysis between the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) accelerator and Super-Kamiokande (SK) atmospheric neutrinos is presented. The two experiments have been playing leading roles in the global constraints on neutrino oscillation parameters such as $\delta_{\mathrm{CP}}$, $\theta_{23}$, and neutrino mass ordering (MO). The atmospheric neutrinos observed in SK have a good sensitivity to the MO, meanwhile a precise measurement of the leptonic CP violation phase ($\delta_{\mathrm{CP}}$) can be achieved by the exclusive $\nu_\mu\rightarrow\nu_e$ and $\bar\nu_\mu\rightarrow\bar\nu_e$ oscillation measurements in accelerator neutrinos. However, possible degeneracy limits the measurement precision in each experiment. In this work, we perform a joint fit to overcome this obscurity with the correlation of systematic uncertainties taken into account. The impact of T2K near detector constraints on the fit of SK atmospheric neutrinos is tested, and an increase of sensitivity to $\delta_{\mathrm{CP}}$ and MO is demonstrated.
The q 95 window for Type-I edge localized modes (ELMs) suppression using n = 4 even parity resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) has been significantly expanded to the ranges [3.9, 4.1] and [4.2, 4.8] in EAST while maintaining good confinement, which is demonstrated to be reliable and repeatable over the last two years. This window is significantly wider than the previous one achieved using n = 4 odd parity RMPs, which is around q95=3.7±0.1 . Here, n represents the toroidal mode number of the applied RMPs and q 95 is the safety factor at 95% of the normalized poloidal magnetic flux. During ELM suppression, there is only a slight drop in the plasma stored energy and density ( ⩽10% ). The comparison of changes in the pedestal profiles suggests that ELM suppression is achieved when the pedestal gradient is kept lower than a threshold. This wide q 95 window for ELM suppression is consistent with the prediction made by MARS-F modeling prior to the experiment, which located it at one of the resonant q 95 windows for plasma response. The Chirikov parameter taking into account plasma response near the pedestal top, which measures plasma edge stochasticity, significantly increases when q 95 exceeds 4, mainly due to the denser neighboring rational surfaces. The modeling of plasma response reveals a strong coupling between resonant and non-resonant components across the pedestal region, which is a characteristic of the kink-peeling like response observed during RMP-ELM suppression in previous studies on EAST. These promising results demonstrate the reliability of ELM suppression using the n = 4 RMPs in EAST and expand the physical understanding on ELM suppression mechanism.
The sensitivity of a joint oscillation analysis between the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) accelerator and Super-Kamiokande (SK) atmospheric neutrinos is presented. The two experiments have been playing leading roles in the global constraints on neutrino oscillation parameters such as delta(CP), theta(23), and neutrino mass ordering (MO). The atmospheric neutrinos observed in SK have a good sensitivity to the MO, meanwhile a precise measurement of the leptonic CP violation phase (delta(CP)) can be achieved by the exclusive nu(mu) -> nu(e) and (nu) over bar (mu) -> (nu) over bar (e) oscillation measurements in accelerator neutrinos. However, possible degeneracy limits the measurement precision in each experiment. In this work, we perform a joint fit to overcome this obscurity with the correlation of systematic uncertainties taken into account. The impact of T2K near detector constraints on the fit of SK atmospheric neutrinos is tested, and an increase of sensitivity to delta(CP) and MO is demonstrated.
The influence of plasma beta effects on the edge plasma transport in the Wendelstein 7-X standard configuration is studied systematically by using EMC3-EIRENE combined with a 3D equilibrium code named HINT. The magnetic topology changes induced by plasma beta effects are significantly reflected in plasma transport behaviors and heat flux patterns on divertor targets. After validating the modeling strategy by comparisons with experimental data, the extended simulations for high performance plasmas show that the threshold separatrix density for accessing the power detachment is reduced in higher beta plasmas. Compared with the vacuum field case, the impurity radiation distributions with finite beta effects are modified in the magnetic island region. The divertor heat flux is distributed more evenly along the toroidal direction on the strike line at the vertical target. The strike line on the horizontal target moves towards the pumping gap with an increase in the plasma beta. In addition, the different pressure profiles with the same central beta also result in a modified heat flux pattern on the divertor targets.