Charge-separated atmospheric neutrino-induced muons in the MINOS far detector

Adamson, P.; Andreopoulos, C.; Arms, K.; Armstrong, R.; Auty, D. J.; Avvakumov, S.; Ayres, D. S.; Baller, B.; Barish, B.; Barnes, P. D.; Barr, G.; Barrett, W. L.; Beall, Erik B.; Becker, B. R.; Belias, A.; Bergfeld, T.; Bernstein, R. H.; Bhattacharya, D.; Bishai, M.; Blake, A.; Böck, B.; Bock, G. J.; Boehm, J.; Boehnlein, D.; Bogert, D.; Border, P.; Bower, C.; Buckley-Geer, E.; Cabrera, A.; Chapman, J. D.; Cherdack, D.; Childress, S.; Choudhary, B. C.; Cobb, J.H.; Culling, A. J.; Jong, J. K. de; Santo, A. De; Dierckxsens, M.; Diwan, M. V.; Dorman, M.; Drakoulakos, D.; Durkin, T.; Erwin, A. R.; Escobar, C. O.; Evans, Justin J.; Harris, E. Falk; Feldman, G. J.; Fields, T.; Ford, R.; Frohne, M. V.; Gallagher, H.; Giurgiu, G.; Godley, A.; Gogos, J.; Goodman, M. C.; Gouffon, P.; Gran, R.; Grashorn, E.; Grossman, N.; Grzelak, K.; Habig, A.; Harris, Deborah A.; Harris, Philip; Hartnell, J.; Hartouni, E. P.; Hatcher, R.; Heller, K.; Holin, A.; Howcroft, C.; Hylen, J.; Indurthy, D.; Irwin, G. M.; Ishitsuka, M.; Jaffe, D. E.; James, C.; Jenner, L.; Jensen, D.; Joffe–Minor, T.; Kafka, T.; Kang, Hee-Dong; Kasahara, S. M S; Kim, M. S.; Koizumi, G.; Köpp, S.; Kordosky, M.; Koskinen, D. J.; Kotelnikov, S.K.; Kreymer, A.; Kumaratunga, S.; Lang, K.; Lebedev, A.; Lee, R.; Liu, J.; Litchfield, P. J.; Litchfield, R. P.; Lucas, P.; Mann, W. A.; Marchionni, A.; Marino, A. D.; Маршак, М. Л.; Marshall, J.; Mayer, N.; McGowan, A. M.; Meier, J. R.; Merzon, G. I.; Messier, M. D.; Michael, D. G.; Milburn, R. H.; Miller, J.; Miller, William H.; Mishra, S. R.; Mislivec, A.; Miyagawa, P. S.; Moore, C. D.; Morfín, J. G.; Mualem, L.; Mufson, S.; Murgia, S.; Musser, J.; Naples, D.; Nelson, J. K.; Newman, H. B.; Nichol, R. J.; Nicholls, T. C.; Ochoa-Ricoux, J. P.; Oliver, W. P.; Osiecki, T.; Ospanov, R.; Paley, J.; Paolone, V.; Para, A.; Patzak, T.; Pavlović, Ž.; Pearce, G. F.; Peck, C. W.; Peterson, E. A.; Petyt, D.; Ping, H.; Piteira, R.; Pittam, R.; Plunkett, R.; Rahman, David; Rameika, R.; Raufer, T. M.; Rebel, B.; Reichenbacher, J.; Reyna, D.; Rosenfeld, C.; Rubin, H. A.; Ruddick, K.; Ryabov, V. A.; Saakyan, R.; Sanchez, M. C.; Saoulidou, N.; Schneps, J.; Schreiner, P.; Semenov, V.; Seun, S. M.; Shanahan, P.; Smart, W.; Smirnitsky, V. A.; Smith, C.; Sousa, A.; Speakman, B.; Stamoulis, P.; Symes, P. A.; Tagg, N.; Talaga, R. L.; Tetteh-Lartey, E.; Thomas, J. C.; Thompson, Joshua; Thomson, M. A.; Thron, J. L.; Tinti, G.; Trostin, I.S.; Царев, В. А.; Tzanakos, G.; Urheim, J.; Vahle, P.; Verebryusov, V.S.; Viren, B.; Ward, C. P.; Ward, D. R.; Watabe, M.; Weber, A.; Webb, R.; Wehmann, A.; West, N.; White, C.; Wojcicki, S. G.; Wright, D.; Wu, Q.; Yang, T.; Yumiceva, F. X.; Zheng, Hua; Zois, M.; Zwaska, R.

doi:10.1103/physrevd.75.092003

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The detectors are also capable of measuring cosmic neutrinos. Analysis of the oscillation parameters has been found to be consistent with oscillations and CPT conservation [69]. Further analyses on cosmic muons have been published showing the ratio of µ + to µ − [70] and the seasonal variation in the rate of cosmic ray muons [71].…”

Section: Minos Physics Goals and Achievementsmentioning

confidence: 75%

A search for sterile neutrinos at the MINOS experiment

Pittam

2010

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MINOS is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment based at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, USA. The experiment was designed to study neutrino oscillation phenomena. The ν µ beam produced by the NuMI beam facility at FNAL is used along with two functionally identical detectors. The Near Detector at FNAL and a Far Detector 735 km away in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota. Comparison of the observed spectra of neutrinos at the two detectors provides the evidence for neutrino oscillations.This thesis presents work on the postulated phenomena of sterile neutrinos. Oscillations between active and sterile neutrinos will lead to a deficit in the expected rate of measured Neutral Current interactions at the Far Detector. A technique for selecting Neutral Current events utilising an Artificial Neural Network is presented with resulting overall efficiency of 91.1% and purity of 66.0%. A method of predicting the expected Charged and Neutral Current energy spectra at the Far Detector given the data recorded at the Near Detector is presented. A model to search for oscillations between sterile and active neutrinos is developed. Sources of systematic uncertainty that can effect the results of the analysis are discussed.The analysis developed is applied to a Standard Model 3 flavour oscillation model as a cross check under the scenarios with and without ν e appearance. The oscillation parameters measured by this model are ∆m −0.11 for the no ν e appearance result. An analysis of the resulting prediction reveals no evidence for active neutrino disappearance.The analysis is then performed using the 4 flavour neutrino oscillation model developed. Again this is done under the 2 scenarios of ν e appearance and no ν e appearance. The results of this analysis are ∆m −0.19 and θ 34 = 0.00 +0.60 for ν e appearance. This is consistent with no oscillations between active and sterile neutrinos.

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Section: Minos Physics Goals and Achievementsmentioning

confidence: 75%

A search for sterile neutrinos at the MINOS experiment

Pittam

2010

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“…An alternate analysis [55] of the Super-Kamiokande data bins the observed The rate of atmospheric neutrinos as a function of zenith angle has also been analyzed by Soudan 2 [56], MACRO [57], and MINOS [58,59]. All favour ν µ ↔ ν τ oscillations with parameters consistent with those found by Super-Kamiokande, though with significantly less sensitivity.…”

Section: Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations 251 Super-kamiokandementioning

confidence: 98%

“…Although not optimized to distinguish ν e events, MINOS has obtained a competitive limit on the sub-dominant ν µ ↔ ν e oscillations (see Section 2.7.2). MINOS has also searched for sterile neutrinos via the neutral-current event rate [99], is sensitive to atmospheric neutrinos [58,59] and cosmic rays [100,101,102], has measured neutrino cross-sections using the near detector [103], and has set limits on Lorentz violation [104,105].…”

Section: Cosmological Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring neutrino oscillation parameters using $\nu_\mu$ disappearance in MINOS

Backhouse¹

2011

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MINOS is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. It consists of two large steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters. The near detector is situated at Fermilab, close to the production point of the NuMI muon-neutrino beam. The far detector is 735 km away, 716 m underground in the Soudan mine, Northern Minnesota.The primary purpose of the MINOS experiment is to make precise measurements of the "atmospheric" neutrino oscillation parameters (∆m 2 atm and sin 2 2θ atm ). The oscillation signal consists of an energy-dependent deficit of ν µ interactions in the far detector. The near detector is used to characterize the properties of the beam before oscillations develop. The two-detector design allows many potential sources of systematic error in the far detector to be mitigated by the near detector observations. This thesis describes the details of the ν µ -disappearance analysis, and presents a new technique to estimate the hadronic energy of neutrino interactions. This estimator achieves a significant improvement in the energy resolution of the neutrino spectrum, and in the sensitivity of the neutrino oscillation fit. The systematic uncertainty on the hadronic energy scale was re-evaluated and found to be comparable to that of the energy estimator previously in use.The best-fit oscillation parameters of the ν µ -disappearance analysis, incorporating this new estimator were: ∆m 2 = 2.32. A similar analysis, using data from a period of running where the NuMI beam was operated in a configuration producing a predominantlyν µ beam, yielded somewhat different best-fit parameters ∆m 2 = 3.36−0.12 (stat.) ± 0.01(syst.). The tension between these results is intriguing, and additional antineutrino data is currently being taken in order to further investigate this apparent discrepancy. DeclarationI declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and were produced by me as the result of my own original research. The work was done while a candidate for a degree at the University of Oxford, and has not been submitted for any other qualification. Results and figures from published works have been clearly attributed.The energy estimation technique presented in Chapter 5 of this thesis was my primary original contribution to the MINOS charged-current analysis. The analysis as a whole was performed by a group within the collaboration, and while I made significant contributions, the innovations described in Chapter 4 are the work of others (in many cases the subject of a thesis in their own right).ii AcknowledgmentsOver the course of 3 1 /2 years I've collected quite a number of people without whom this thesis wouldn't have been possible (or at least severely delayed). So here goes, in roughly chronological order:Thanks to my supervisor, Giles Barr, who never ceases to be optimistic, no matter how broken the analysis, or close the deadline. I also appreciated his offers (which I never had to take up) to throw his weight around and leave me to get on with writing, and his prompt proofreading (by usual a...

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“…Results have been published in [30], with the fraction of ν µ which can convert into a sterile neutrinos limited to be 50% at 90% C.L. This thesis analyses sterile neutrino mixing with ∆m Apart from the beam neutrino oscillations, MINOS has studied neutrino oscillations [83] with neutrinos coming from the atmosphere and cosmic ray fluxes [84,85] exploiting the underground location and the magnetisation of the detectors. The Near Detector can be used for neutrino cross section measurements [86].…”

Section: The Physics Capabilities Of Minosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sterile neutrino oscillations in MINOS and hadron production in pC collisions

Tinti

2010

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MINOS is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, starting with a muon-neutrino beam, for the precise measurement of the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters |∆m 2 | and θ 23 . The Near Detector measures the neutrino flux and spectra before oscillations. The beam propagates for 735 km to the Far Detector, which measures the depleted spectrum after oscillations. The depletion can be interpreted as ν µ → ν τ oscillations. Subdominant ν µ → ν e oscillations may be allowed if the mixing angle θ 13 = 0.The two detectors are functionally identical in order to cancel systematic errors when using the Near Detector data to constrain the Far Detector prediction. A crucial part of the analysis is the relative calibration between the two detectors, which is known at the 2% level. A calibration procedure to remove the time and temperature dependence of the detector response using through-going cosmic muons is presented here.Although the two-detector approach reduces the systematic uncertainties related to the neutrino flux, a cross check on the neutrino parent meson ratios is performed in this thesis. The cross sections of mesons produced in proton-carbon interactions from the NA49 experiment have been measured and the results have been compared to the MINOS expectations.A neutrino oscillation analysis allowing mixing to a sterile neutrino is performed, under the assumption that the additional mass splitting is O(1 eV 2 ). The analysis uses the energy spectrum of the neutral current interaction products, as neutral current interactions are sensitive to sterile neutrino mixing but not to the active flavour neutrino mixing. The neutrino oscillation parameters have been found to be: To my parents

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Charge-separated atmospheric neutrino-induced muons in the MINOS far detector

Cited by 29 publications

References 30 publications

A search for sterile neutrinos at the MINOS experiment

A search for sterile neutrinos at the MINOS experiment

Measuring neutrino oscillation parameters using $\nu_\mu$ disappearance in MINOS

Sterile neutrino oscillations in MINOS and hadron production in pC collisions

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