Neutrino oscillation searches at the AGS. [Feasibility studies, upper limit]

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1978

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6228675· OSTI ID:6228675

Soukas, A; Bregman, M; Galik, R

A feasibility study of the time evolution of a long-lived ..nu../sub ..mu../ beam was performed. The proton momentum (1.5 GeV/c) was chosen to concentrate the ..nu../sub ..mu../ flux at very low energy where all background reactions are kinematically suppressed. Sensitivity to oscillations at large proper times tau Varies as l/p (where l is the flight length and p is the momentum of the neutrino) is greatly enhanced by the resulting low neutrino momentum. Possible transformations ..nu../sub ..mu../ ..-->.. ..nu../sub e/ (searched for via ..nu../sub e/n ..-->.. e/sup -/p reactions) were not observed in an exposure of 2 x 10/sup 18/ protons on target. Ten possible ..nu../sub ..mu../n ..-->.. ..mu../sup -/p events were observed. An upper limit of 3 eV, comparable to previous limits, can be placed on the mass difference between the two neutrino eigenstates. The accelerator backgrounds are low and the neutrino fluxes copious so that an experiment to approach a mass difference limit of less than or equal to 1 eV is currently possible. Future experiments with longer distances and larger masses could reach 0.1 eV at the AGS, comparable to the best limits proposed in other accelerator and reactor experiments. 34 references.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (USA); Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-02-0016
• OSTI ID: 6228675
• Report Number(s): BNL-26039; TRN: 79-012661
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
MUON NEUTRINOS
EIGENSTATES
MASS DIFFERENCE
NEUTRINO-NEUTRINO INTERACTIONS
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY SPECTRA
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
FLUX DENSITY
GEV RANGE 01-10
GRAPHS
LIMITING VALUES
LINEAR MOMENTUM
NEUTRINO BEAMS
PROTON REACTIONS
THEORETICAL DATA
TIME DEPENDENCE
VARIATIONS
BARYON REACTIONS
BEAMS
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
DATA
DATA FORMS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
GEV RANGE
HADRON REACTIONS
INFORMATION
INTERACTIONS
LEPTON BEAMS
LEPTON-LEPTON INTERACTIONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
NEUTRINOS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEON REACTIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE BEAMS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
SPECTRA
645102* - High Energy Physics- Particle Interactions & Properties-Experimental- Weak Interactions & Properties