An Analysis of Muon Neutrino Disappearance from the NuMI Beam Using an Optimal Track Fitter

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1223262· OSTI ID:1223262

Baird, Michael David ^[1]

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1. Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)

The NOvA experiment is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment based out of Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory that uses two liquid scintillator detectors, one at Fermilab (the \near" detector) and a second 14 kton detector in northern Minnesota (the \far" detector.) The primary physics goals of the NOvA experiment are to measure neutrino mixing parameters through both the v_μ disappearance and v_e appearance channels using neutrinos from the newly upgraded NuMI beam line. The NOvA v_μ disappearance analysis can significantly improve the world's best measurement of sin² θ ₂₃. This analysis proceeds by using the measured v_μ charged-current energy spectrum in the near detector to predict the spectrum in the far detector, and comparing this to the measured spectrum to obtain a best fit for the oscillation parameters sin² θ ₂₃ and Δm² ₃₂. Since this fit is governed by the shape of the energy spectrum, the best fit will be maximized by obtaining the best possible energy resolution for the individual neutrino events. This dissertation describes an alternate v_μ disappearance analysis technique for the NOvA experiment, based on the idea that estimating the energy resolution of the individual events will allow them to be separated into different energy resolution samples in order to improve the final fit.

• 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: 1223262
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-THESIS-2015-24
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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