K2K is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using a neutrino beam produced at the KEK 12 GeV PS, a near detector complex at KEK and a far detector (Super-Kamiokande) in Kamioka, Japan. The experiment was constructed and is being operated by an international consortium of institutions from Japan, Korea, and the US. The experiment started taking data in 1999 and has successfully taken data for about two years. K2K is the first long beseline neutrino oscillation experiment with a baseline of order hundreds of km and is the first accelerator based neutrino oscillation experiment that is sensitive to the Super-Kamiokande allowed region obtained from the atmospheric neutrino oscillation analysis. A total of 44 events have been observed in the far detector during the period of June 1999 to April 2001 corresponding to 3.85 × 1019 protons on target. The observation is consistent with the neutrino oscillation expectations based on the oscillation parameters derived from the atmospheric neutrinos, and the probability that this is a statistical fluctuation of non-oscillation expectation of [Formula: see text] is less than 3%.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE JHF-KAMIOKA NEUTRINO OSCILLATION EXPERIMENT
