First observations of separated atmospheric νμ and ν¯μ events in the MINOS detector

Adamson, P. et al. (2006) First observations of separated atmospheric νμ and ν¯μ events in the MINOS detector. Physical Review D, 73(7), 072002. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.73.072002)

Abstract

The complete 5.4 kton MINOS far detector has been taking data since the beginning of August 2003 at a depth of 2070 meters water-equivalent in the Soudan mine, Minnesota. This paper presents the first MINOS observations of ν μ and ¯ ν μ charged-current atmospheric neutrino interactions based on an exposure of 418 days. The ratio of upward- to downward-going events in the data is compared to the Monte Carlo expectation in the absence of neutrino oscillations, giving R data up / down / R MC up / down = 0.62 + 0.19 − 0.14 ( stat . ) ± 0.02 ( sys . ) . An extended maximum likelihood analysis of the observed L / E distributions excludes the null hypothesis of no neutrino oscillations at the 98% confidence level. Using the curvature of the observed muons in the 1.3 T MINOS magnetic field ν μ and ¯ ν μ interactions are separated. The ratio of ¯ ν μ to ν μ events in the data is compared to the Monte Carlo expectation assuming neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate in the same manner, giving R data ¯ ν μ / ν μ / R MC ¯ ν μ / ν μ = 0.96 + 0.38 − 0.27 ( stat . ) ± 0.15 ( sys . ) , where the errors are the statistical and systematic uncertainties. Although the statistics are limited, this is the first direct observation of atmospheric neutrino interactions separately for ν μ and ¯ ν μ .

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Litchfield, Dr Phillip
• Authors: Adamson, P., Alexopoulos, T., Allison, W. W. M., Alner, G. J., Anderson, K., Andreopoulos, C., Andrews, M., Andrews, R., Arroyo, C., Avvakumov, S., Ayres, D. S., Baller, B., Barish, B., Barker, M. A., Barnes, P. D., Barr, G., Barrett, W. L., Beall, E., Becker, B. R., Belias, A., Bergfeld, T., Bernstein, R. H., Bhattacharya, D., Bishai, M., Blake, A., Bocean, V., Bock, B., Bock, G. J., Boehm, J., Boehnlein, D. J., Bogert, D., Border, P. M., Bower, C., Boyd, S., Buckley-Geer, E., Byon-Wagner, A., Cabrera, A., Chapman, J. D., Chase, T. R., Chernichenko, S. K., Childress, S., Choudhary, B. C., Cobb, J. H., Cossairt, J. D., Courant, H., Crane, D. A., Culling, A. J., Dawson, J. W., DeMuth, D. M., De Santo, A., Dierckxsens, M., Diwan, M. V., Dorman, M., Drake, G., Ducar, R., Durkin, T., Erwin, A. R., Escobar, C. O., Evans, J., Fackler, O. D., Harris, E. F., Feldman, G. J., Felt, N., Fields, T. H., Ford, R., Frohne, M. V., Gallagher, H. R., Gebhard, M., Godley, A., Gogos, J., Goodman, M. C., Gornushkin, Y., Gouffon, P., Grashorn, E., Grossman, N., Grudzinski, J. J., Grzelak, K., Guarino, V., Habig, A., Halsall, R., Hanson, J., Harris, D., Harris, P. G., Hartnell, J., Hartouni, E. P., Hatcher, R., Heller, K., Hill, N., Ho, Y., Howcroft, C., Hylen, J., Ignatenko, M., Indurthy, D., Irwin, G. M., James, C., Jenner, L., Jensen, D., Joffe-Minor, T., Kafka, T., Kang, H. J., Kasahara, S. M. S., Kilmer, J., Kim, H., Koizumi, G., Kopp, S., Kordosky, M., Koskinen, D. J., Kostin, M., Krakauer, D. A., Kumaratunga, S., Ladran, A. S., Lang, K., Laughton, C., Lebedev, A., Lee, R., Lee, W. Y., Libkind, M. A., Liu, J., Litchfield, P. J., Litchfield, R. P., Longley, N. P., Lucas, P., Luebke, W., Madani, S., Maher, E., Makeev, V., Mann, W. A., Marchionni, A., Marino, A. D., Marshak, M. L., Marshall, J. S., McDonald, J., McGowan, A., Meier, J. R., Merzon, G. I., Messier, M. D., Michael, D. G., Milburn, R. H., Miller, J. L., Miller, W. H., Mishra, S. R., Miyagawa, P. S., Moore, C., Morfín, J., Morse, R., Mualem, L., Mufson, S., Murgia, S., Murtagh, M. J., Musser, J., Naples, D., Nelson, C., Nelson, J. K., Newman, H. B., Nezrick, F., Nichol, R. J., Nicholls, T. C., Ochoa-Ricoux, J. P., Oliver, J., Oliver, W. P., Onuchin, V. A., Osiecki, T., Ospanov, R., Paley, J., Paolone, V., Para, A., Patzak, T., Pavlovich, Z., Pearce, G. F., Pearson, N., Peck, C. W., Perry, C., Peterson, E. A., Petyt, D. A., Ping, H., Piteira, R., Pla-Dalmau, A., Plunkett, R. K., Price, L. E., Proga, M., Pushka, D. R., Rahman, D., Rameika, R. A., Raufer, T. M., Read, A. L., Rebel, B., Reyna, D. E., Rosenfeld, C., Rubin, H. A., Ruddick, K., Ryabov, V. A., Saakyan, R., Sanchez, M. C., Saoulidou, N., Schneps, J., Schoessow, P. V., Schreiner, P., Schwienhorst, R., Semenov, V. K., Seun, S.-M., Shanahan, P., Shield, P. D., Smart, W., Smirnitsky, V., Smith, C., Smith, P. N., Sousa, A., Speakman, B., Stamoulis, P., Stefanik, A., Sullivan, P., Swan, J. M., Symes, P. A., Tagg, N., Talaga, R. L., Tetteh-Lartey, E., Thomas, J., Thompson, J., Thomson, M. A., Thron, J. L., Trendler, R., Trevor, J., Trostin, I., Tsarev, V. A., Tzanakos, G., Urheim, J., Vahle, P., Vakili, M., Vaziri, K., Velissaris, C., Verebryusov, V., Viren, B., Wai, L., Ward, C. P., Ward, D. R., Watabe, M., Weber, A., Webb, R. C., Wehmann, A., West, N., White, C., White, R. F., Wojcicki, S. G., Wright, D. M., Wu, Q. K., Yan, W. G., Yang, T., Yumiceva, F. X., Yun, J. C., Zheng, H., Zois, M., and Zwaska, R.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Physical Review D
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 1550-7998
• ISSN (Online): 1550-2368
• Published Online: 06 April 2006