Searches for sterile neutrinos with NOvA

Davies, Gavin S.; Aurisano, Adam; Kafka, Gareth K.; Kasetti, Siva; Keloth, Rijeesh; Sousa, Alex; Suter, Louise; Yang, Shaokai

Title: Searches for sterile neutrinos with NOvA

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

Contradictory evidence has been presented on the issue of neutrino mixing between the three known active neutrinos and light sterile neutrino species. Apparent short-baseline neutrino oscillations observed by the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments, the collective evidence of the reactor neutrino anomaly, and the gallium anomaly all point towards sterile neutrinos with mass at the 1 eV level. While these results are tantalizing, they are not conclusive as they are in tension with null results from other short-baseline experiments, and with disappearance searches in longbaseline and atmospheric experiments. The NOvA (NuMI Off-Axis v_e Appearance) experiment may help clarify the situation by searching for disappearance of active neutrinos from the NuMI (Neutrinos from the Main Injector) beam over a baseline of 810 km. We describe the method used by NOvA to look for oscillations into sterile neutrinos at the Far Detector (FD) through the disappearance of neutral-current (NC) neutrino events, including preliminary results of this search. In addition, the Near Detector (ND) is well suited for searching for anomalous short-baseline oscillations and probing the LSND and MiniBooNE sterile neutrino allowed regions using a variety of final states. We also present a novel method for selecting samples with high purity at the NDmore »« less

Authors:

Davies, Gavin S. ^[1]; Aurisano, Adam ^[2]; Kafka, Gareth K. ^[3]; Kasetti, Siva ^[4]; Keloth, Rijeesh ^[5]; Sousa, Alex ^[2]; Suter, Louise ^[6]; Yang, Shaokai ^[2]

Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
Univ. of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH (United States)
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
Univ. of Hyderabad (India)
Cochin Univ. of Science and Technology (India)
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

Publication Date:: Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2016

Research Org.:: Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

OSTI Identifier:: 1353463

Report Number(s):: FERMILAB-CONF-16-673-ND
Journal ID: ISSN 1824-8039; 1596816

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-07CH11359

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: PoS Proceedings of Science

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: ICHEP2016; Journal ID: ISSN 1824-8039

Publisher:: SISSA

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats


                    Davies, Gavin S., Aurisano, Adam, Kafka, Gareth K., Kasetti, Siva, Keloth, Rijeesh, Sousa, Alex, Suter, Louise, and Yang, Shaokai. Searches for sterile neutrinos with NOvA.  United States: N. p., 2016. 
Web.

Copy to clipboard


                    Davies, Gavin S., Aurisano, Adam, Kafka, Gareth K., Kasetti, Siva, Keloth, Rijeesh, Sousa, Alex, Suter, Louise, & Yang, Shaokai. Searches for sterile neutrinos with NOvA.  United States.

Copy to clipboard


                    Davies, Gavin S., Aurisano, Adam, Kafka, Gareth K., Kasetti, Siva, Keloth, Rijeesh, Sousa, Alex, Suter, Louise, and Yang, Shaokai. Tue .  
"Searches for sterile neutrinos with NOvA".  United States.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1353463.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1353463,

  title        = {Searches for sterile neutrinos with NOvA},

  author       = {Davies, Gavin S. and Aurisano, Adam and Kafka, Gareth K. and Kasetti, Siva and Keloth, Rijeesh and Sousa, Alex and Suter, Louise and Yang, Shaokai},

  abstractNote = {Contradictory evidence has been presented on the issue of neutrino mixing between the three known active neutrinos and light sterile neutrino species. Apparent short-baseline neutrino oscillations observed by the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments, the collective evidence of the reactor neutrino anomaly, and the gallium anomaly all point towards sterile neutrinos with mass at the 1 eV level. While these results are tantalizing, they are not conclusive as they are in tension with null results from other short-baseline experiments, and with disappearance searches in longbaseline and atmospheric experiments. The NOvA (NuMI Off-Axis ve Appearance) experiment may help clarify the situation by searching for disappearance of active neutrinos from the NuMI (Neutrinos from the Main Injector) beam over a baseline of 810 km. We describe the method used by NOvA to look for oscillations into sterile neutrinos at the Far Detector (FD) through the disappearance of neutral-current (NC) neutrino events, including preliminary results of this search. In addition, the Near Detector (ND) is well suited for searching for anomalous short-baseline oscillations and probing the LSND and MiniBooNE sterile neutrino allowed regions using a variety of final states. We also present a novel method for selecting samples with high purity at the ND using convolutional neural networks. Furthermore, based on this method, the sensitivity to anomalous short-baseline nt appearance are shown, and searches for anomalous ve appearance and vμ disappearance at the NOvA ND are presented.},

  doi          = {},

  journal      = {PoS Proceedings of Science},

  number       = ,

  volume       = ICHEP2016,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2016},

  month        = {Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2016}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

The DOI is not currently available

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

A Search for Anomalous Muon Neutrino Disappearance and Tau Neutrino Appearance using NOvA Near Detector

Thesis/Dissertation Keloth, Rijeesh

The NOvA experiment consists of two finely segmented, liquid scintillator detectors operating 14.6 mrad off-axis from the NuMI muon-neutrino beam. The Near Detector (ND) is located in the Fermilab campus, 1 km from the NuMI target, while the Far Detector (FD) is located at Ash River, MN, 810 km from the NuMI target. The NOvA experiment is primarily designed to measure electron-neutrino appearance at the FD using the ND to control systematic uncertainties. However, the ND is well suited to search for anomalous short-baseline (SBL) oscillations. The standard three-flavor neutrino oscillations have well explained by a wide range of neutrinomore »« less
Full Text Available
NOvA Short-Baseline Tau Neutrino Appearance Search

Conference Keloth, Rijeesh ; Aurisano, Adam ; Sousa, Alexander ; ...

Standard three-flavor neutrino oscillations have well explained by a wide range of neutrino experiments. However, the anomalous results, such as electron-antineutrino excess seen by LSND and MiniBooNE do not fit the three-flavor paradigm. This can be explained by an additional fourth flavor sterile neutrino at a larger scale than the existing three flavor neutrinos. The NOvA experiment consists of two finely segmented, liquid scintillator detectors operating 14 .6 mrad off-axis from the NuMI muon-neutrino beam. The Near Detector is located on the Fermilab campus, 1 km from the NuMI target, while the Far Detector is located at Ash River, MN,more »« less
Full Text Available
Searching for Light Sterile Neutrinos with NOvA Through Neutral-Current Disappearance

Thesis/Dissertation Yang, Shaokai

Most appearance and disappearance neutrino oscillation experiments have observed evidence for neutrino oscillations that agree with the three-flavor neutrino paradigm. Explaining unexpected signal from short-baseline appearance experiments, such as LSND and MiniBooNE, in terms of neutrino oscillations requires the existence of light sterile neutrino(s). The study of light sterile neutrino induced flavor mixing in NOvA uses a long-baseline of 810 km between the Near Detector (ND) at Fermilab and the Far Detector (FD) in Minnesota. The signal for light sterile neutrino-driven oscillations is a deficit of Neutral-Current (NC) neutrino interactions at the FD concerning the ND prediction. In our analysis,more »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1556945

Full Text Available
Sterile Neutrino Search in the NOvA Far Detector

Conference Edayath, Sijith ; Aurisano, Adam ; Sousa, Alexandre ; ...

The majority of neutrino oscillation experiments have obtained evidence for neutrino oscillations that are compatible with the three-flavor model. Explaining anomalous results from short-baseline experiments, such as LSND and MiniBooNE, in terms of neutrino oscillations requires the existence of sterile neutrinos. The search for sterile neutrino mixing conducted in NOvA uses a long baseline of 810 km between Near Detector (ND) at Fermilab and Far Detector (FD) in Minnesota. The signal for sterile neutrino oscillations is a deficit of neutral-current neutrino interactions at the FD with respect to the ND prediction. In this document, We will present the analysis improvementsmore »« less
Full Text Available
Long-baseline Sterile Neutrino Searches in the NOvA Experiment

Thesis/Dissertation Sijith, Edayath

Experimental high energy physics constitutes the experimental investigation of the fundamental building blocks of matter and radiation and their interactions. These fundamental building blocks are classified as bosons and fermions. Neutrinos are fermions that come under the lepton category. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, they are massless, neutral particles that interacts with matter only through weak force and comes in three different flavors. Neutrinos exhibit a characteristic property, known as the neutrino oscillation. Neutrino oscillation is the the change of neutrino from one flavor to another flavor as they propagates in space. This phenomenon is only possiblemore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1767034

Full Text Available

Similar Records