T2K team detects first neutrinos

T2K - an international experiment led by Japan and part funded by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) - is to probe the strange properties of the neutrino by firing the most intense neutrino beam ever designed from the east coast of Japan, all the way under the country, to a detector near Japan’s west coast.

Prof Dave Wark of Imperial College London and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the international co-spokesperson of T2K, said: ‘It was extremely satisfying to see the first events in the detector. It has been the result of a lot of hard work by a large number of people and I think we will have a sake or two to celebrate and then send a bottle along to CERN as I hear they are going to need quite a few bottles pretty soon as well.’

Among the international team of around 400 physicists from 12 countries, UK scientists have made a significant contribution to the experiment. With nine UK institutions involved, the UK has produced vital hardware for both the accelerator and detectors. The UK is also playing a leading role in the analysis software for the experiment and will be fully involved in using the data to explore the properties of neutrinos.