Experimental study of the atmospheric neutrino backgrounds forp→e+π0searches in water Cherenkov detectors

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Abstract

The atmospheric neutrino background for proton decay via $p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ in ring imaging water Cherenkov detectors is studied with an artificial accelerator neutrino beam for the first time. In total, $3.14\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ 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 ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ 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 $p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ background rate by the KT data for SK from the atmospheric neutrinos whose energies are below 3 GeV is ${1.63}_{\ensuremath{-}0.33}^{+0.42}(\mathrm{stat}{)}_{\ensuremath{-}0.51}^{+0.45}(\mathrm{syst})(\mathrm{megaton}\mathrm{\text{\ensuremath{-}}}\mathrm{year}{)}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. This result is also relevant to possible future, megaton-scale water Cherenkov detectors.

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