Studying neutrino oscillations using quasi-elastic events in MINOS
- Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
MINOS (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search), is a long baseline neutrino experiment designed to search for neutrino oscillations using two detectors at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, IL (Near Detector) and Soudan, MN (Far Detector). It will study vμ → vτ oscillations and make a measurement on the oscillation parameters, Δm$$2\atop{23}$$ and sin2 2θ23, via a vμ beam made at Fermilab. Charge current neutrino interactions in the MINOS detectors are of three types: quasi-elastic scattering (QEL), resonance scattering (RES) and deep inelastic scattering (DIS). Of these, quasi-elastic scattering leaves the cleanest signal with just one μ and one proton in the final state, thus rendering the reconstruction of the neutrino energy more accurate. This thesis will outline a method to separate QEL events from the others in the two detectors and perform a calculation of Δm$$2\atop{23}$$ and sin2 2θ23 using those events. The period under consideration was May 2005 to February 2006. The number of observed quasi-elastic events with energies below 10 GeV was 29, where the expected number was 60 ± 3. A fit to the energy distribution of these events gives Δm$$2\atop{23}$$ = 2.91$$+0.49\atop{-0.53}$$(stat)$$+0.08\atop{-0.09}$$(sys) x 10-3 eV2 and sin2 2θ23 = 0.990-0.180(stat)-0.030(sys).
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 932866
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-THESIS-2008-16; TRN: US0803671
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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