Search for Sterile Neutrino at MINOS using Antineutrino Disappearance
- Cochin U.
The Search for Sterile neutrino is one of the main on-going research in the field of neutrino physics, and one of the main interest is looking for the sterile neutrinos in long-baseline neutrino experiments. This thesis explains in detail about how we looked for sterile neutrinos at MINOS in the disappearance channel $$P(\bar\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow\bar\nu_{\mu})$$ in an antineutrino enhanced beam that MINOS collected between 2009-2011. The analysis includes only the charged current events. The charged current event selection for this analysis is detailed. The data corresponds to a Proton-on-Target (POT) of $$3.36 \times 10^{20}$$ POT. Oscillations to sterile neutrinos can happen due to large range of $$\Delta m^{2}$$. Hence depending on the baseline neutrino oscillation can happen at both detector. The analysis is done using Far/Near (F/N) fit and look for the perturbation from the standard three flavour oscillation. As we are looking for the small effect, the systematics must be taken so carefully and should be added in the fit. The chapter also describes the various source of systematics and how we included in this analysis. We use covariance matrix technique to add bib-to-bin correlated systematics in the analysis. We have put a limit on the sterile neutrino mixing parameter $$\theta_{24}$$ over a large range of $$\Delta m^{2}_{41}$$ at a 90\% confidence limit. The Feldman-Cousins technique for correcting the contours are also described in this chapter. By combining our disappearance limit to BUGEY (a reactor experiment at France) disappearance $$P(\bar\nu_{e}\rightarrow\ bar\nu_{e})$$ limit, we can compare our results to LSND and MiNiBooNE appearance $$P(\bar\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow\bar\nu_{e})$$ limit.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 1440321
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-THESIS-2016-44; 1674870
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Extraction of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters using a Simultaneous Fit of $\nu_{\mu}$ Disappearance and $\nu_{e}$ Appearance data with the NOvA Experiment
Measurement of the Kaon Production Normalization in the NuMI Target Using Uncontained Charged-Current Muon Neutrino Interactions in the NOvA Far Detector