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Title: Measuring Antineutrino Oscillations with the MINOS Experiment

Abstract

MINOS is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. A manmade beam of predominantly muon neutrinos is detected both 1 km and 735 km from the production point by two functionally identical detectors. A comparison of the energy spectra measured by the two detectors shows the energy-dependent disappearance of muon neutrinos characteristic of oscillations and allows a measurement of the parameters governing the oscillations. This thesis presents work leading to measurements of disappearance in the 6% $$\bar{v}$$μ background in that beam. A calibration is developed to correct for time-dependent changes in the responses of both detectors, reducing the corresponding uncertainty on hadronic energy measurements from 1.8% to 0.4% in the near detector and from 0.8% to 0.4% in the far detector. A method of selecting charged current $$\bar{v}$$μ events is developed, with purities (efficiencies) of 96.5% (74.4%) at the near detector, and 98.8% (70.9%) at the far detector in the region below 10 GeV reconstructed antineutrino energy. A method of using the measured near detector neutrino energy spectrum to predict that expected at the far detector is discussed, and developed for use in the $$\bar{v}$$μ analysis. Sources of systematic uncertainty contributing to the oscillation measurements are discussed. In the far detector,more » 32 charged current $$\bar{v}$$μ events are observed below a reconstructed energy of 30 GeV, compared to an expectation of 47.8 for Δ$$\bar{m}$$atm2 = Δ$$\bar{m}$$atm2, sin2(2$$\bar{θ}$$23) = sin2(2θ23). This deficit, in such a low-statistics sample, makes the result difficult to interpret in the context of an oscillation parameter measurement. Possible sources for the discrepancy are discussed, concluding that considerably more data are required for a definitive solution. Running MINOS with a dedicated $$\bar{v}$$μ beam would be the ideal continuation of this work.« less

Authors:
 [1]
  1. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
952636
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-THESIS-2009-14
TRN: US0902558
DOE Contract Number:  
AC02-07CH11359
Resource Type:
Thesis/Dissertation
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; ANTINEUTRINOS; CALIBRATION; CHARGED CURRENTS; ENERGY SPECTRA; MUON NEUTRINOS; NEUTRINO OSCILLATION; NEUTRINOS; OSCILLATIONS; PRODUCTION; Experiment-HEP

Citation Formats

Evans, Justin John. Measuring Antineutrino Oscillations with the MINOS Experiment. United States: N. p., 2008. Web. doi:10.2172/952636.
Evans, Justin John. Measuring Antineutrino Oscillations with the MINOS Experiment. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/952636
Evans, Justin John. 2008. "Measuring Antineutrino Oscillations with the MINOS Experiment". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/952636. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/952636.
@article{osti_952636,
title = {Measuring Antineutrino Oscillations with the MINOS Experiment},
author = {Evans, Justin John},
abstractNote = {MINOS is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. A manmade beam of predominantly muon neutrinos is detected both 1 km and 735 km from the production point by two functionally identical detectors. A comparison of the energy spectra measured by the two detectors shows the energy-dependent disappearance of muon neutrinos characteristic of oscillations and allows a measurement of the parameters governing the oscillations. This thesis presents work leading to measurements of disappearance in the 6% $\bar{v}$μ background in that beam. A calibration is developed to correct for time-dependent changes in the responses of both detectors, reducing the corresponding uncertainty on hadronic energy measurements from 1.8% to 0.4% in the near detector and from 0.8% to 0.4% in the far detector. A method of selecting charged current $\bar{v}$μ events is developed, with purities (efficiencies) of 96.5% (74.4%) at the near detector, and 98.8% (70.9%) at the far detector in the region below 10 GeV reconstructed antineutrino energy. A method of using the measured near detector neutrino energy spectrum to predict that expected at the far detector is discussed, and developed for use in the $\bar{v}$μ analysis. Sources of systematic uncertainty contributing to the oscillation measurements are discussed. In the far detector, 32 charged current $\bar{v}$μ events are observed below a reconstructed energy of 30 GeV, compared to an expectation of 47.8 for Δ$\bar{m}$atm2 = Δ$\bar{m}$atm2, sin2(2$\bar{θ}$23) = sin2(2θ23). This deficit, in such a low-statistics sample, makes the result difficult to interpret in the context of an oscillation parameter measurement. Possible sources for the discrepancy are discussed, concluding that considerably more data are required for a definitive solution. Running MINOS with a dedicated $\bar{v}$μ beam would be the ideal continuation of this work.},
doi = {10.2172/952636},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/952636}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2008},
month = {Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2008}
}

Thesis/Dissertation:
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