A study of muon neutrino disappearance in the MINOS detectors and the NuMI beam

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/983987· OSTI ID:983987

Ling, Jiajie ^[1]

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1. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)

There is now substantial evidence that the proper description of neutrino involves two representations related by the 3 x 3 PMNS matrix characterized by either distinct mass or flavor. The parameters of this mixing matrix, three angles and a phase, as well as the mass differences between the three mass eigenstates must be determined experimentally. The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search experiment is designed to study the flavor composition of a beam of muon neutrinos as it travels between the Near Detector at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory at 1 km from the target, and the Far Detector in the Soudan iron mine in Minnesota at 735 km from the target. From the comparison of reconstructed neutrino energy spectra at the near and far location, precise measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters from muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance are expected. It is very important to know the neutrino flux coming from the source in order to achieve the main goal of the MINOS experiment: precise measurements of the atmospheric mass splitting |Δm₂₃²|, sin² θ₂₃. The goal of my thesis is to accurately predict the neutrino flux for the MINOS experiment and measure the neutrino mixing angle and atmospheric mass splitting.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 983987
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-THESIS--2010-24
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
EIGENSTATES
ELECTRON NEUTRINOS
ENERGY SPECTRA
Experiment-HEP
FERMILAB ACCELERATOR
IRON
MASS DIFFERENCE
MINNESOTA
MUON NEUTRINOS
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
NEUTRINOS