This letter reports new results from the MINOS experiment based on a two-year exposure to muon neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. Our data are consistent with quantum mechanical oscillations of neutrino flavor with mass splitting $|Δm^2|=(2.43\pm 0.13)\times10^{-3}$ eV$^2$ (68% confidence level) and mixing angle $\sin^2(2θ)>0.90$ (90% confidence level). Our data disfavor two alternative explanations for the disappearance of neutrinos in flight, namely neutrino decays into lighter particles and quantum decoherence of neutrinos, at the 3.7 and 5.7 standard deviation levels, respectively.
The results from the initial exposure of the MINOS detectors to neutrinos produced by the Fermilab NuMI beam are reported here. The exposure consisted of 1.27 x 10^{20} 120 GeV protons incident on the NuMI target. The data show the observation of 215 neutrinos with energies below 30 GeV while 336 +/- 14.4 events were expected. The data are consistent with nu_mu disappearance via neutrino oscillations.
The MINOS experiment is now making precise measurements of the nu_mu disappearance oscillations seen in atmospheric neutrinos, and will extend our reach towards the so far unseen theta_13 by looking for nu_e appearance in the nu_mu beam. It does so by using the intense, well-understood NuMI neutrino beam created at Fermilab and observing it 735 km away at the Soudan Mine in Northeast Minnesota. Results from MINOS' first two years of operations will be presented.
This letter reports results from the MINOS experiment based on its initial exposure to neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. The rate and energy spectra of charged current muon neutrino interactions are compared in two detectors located along the beam axis at distances of 1 km and 735 km. With 1.27 x 10^{20} 120 GeV protons incident on the NuMI target, 215 events with energies below 30 GeV are observed at the Far Detector, compared to an expectation of 336 \pm 14.4 events. The data are consistent with muon neutrino disappearance via oscillation with |Δm^2_{23}| = 2.74^{+0.44}_{-0.26} x 10^{-3…
As of December 2005, the MINOS long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment collected data with an exposure of $0.93\times10^{20}$ protons on target. Preliminary analysis of these data reveals a result inconsistent with a no-oscillation hypothesis at level of 5.8 sigma. The data are consistent with neutrino oscillations reported by Super-Kamiokande and K2K, with best fit parameters of $Δm^2_{23} = 3.05^{+0.60}_{-0.55}\times 10^-3$ and $\sin^22θ_{23} = 0.88^{+0.12}_{-0.15}$.
The velocity of a ~3 GeV neutrino beam is measured by comparing detection times at the Near and Far detectors of the MINOS experiment, separated by 734 km. A total of 473 Far Detector neutrino events was used to measure (v-c)/c = 5.1 +/- 2.9 x 10^-5 (at 68% C.L.). By correlating the measured energies of 258 charged-current neutrino events to their arrival times at the Far Detector, a limit is imposed on the neutrino mass of m_nu < 50 MeV/c^2 (99% C.L.).
This article studies the potential of combining charged-current disappearance measurements of ν_μ to ν_τ from MINOS and an off-axis beam. I find that the error on Δm^2 from a 100 kt-yr off-axis measurement is a few percent of itself. Further, I find little improvement to an off-axis measurement by combining it with MINOS.
NuMI neutrino beam is constructed to aim at the MINOS detector in Soudan mine. Neutrinos emitted at angles $10-20 mrad$ with respect to the beam axis create an intense beam with a well defined energy, dependent on the angle. Additional surface detectors positioned at the transverse distance of several kilometers from the mine offer an opportunity for very precise mesurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters. The mixing matrix element $|U_{e3}|^{2}$ can be measured down to a value of 0.0025 with the exposure of the order of $20 kton\times years$.
The MINOS experiment at Fermilab has released an updated result on muon disappearance based upon 2.5 x 10^20 protons on target. The experiment utilizes the intense source of muon neutrinos provided by the NuMI beam line. This note summarizes the systematic uncertainties in the experiment's knowledge of the flux and energy spectrum of the neutrinos from NuMI.
The Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) facility at Fermilab began operations in late 2004. NuMI will deliver an intense muon neutrino beam of variable energy (2-20 GeV). Several aspects of the design and results from runs of the MINOS experiment are reviewed. I also discuss technique to measure directly the neutrino flux using a muon flux system at the end of the NuMI line.
The Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam supplies an intense $ν_μ$ beam to the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS). The $ν_μ$'s are derived from a secondary $π^+$ beam that is allowed to decay within a 675 m decay tunnel. As part of this effort, we are developing a continuous toroidal magnetic focusing system, called the Hadronic Hose, to better steer the secondary beam. The Hose will both increase the net neutrino flux reaching the MINOS detectors and reduce systematic differences in the neutrino energy spectra at the two detectors due to solid angle acceptances.
The MINOS experiment uses the intense NuMI beam created at Fermilab and two magnetized tracking calorimeters, one located at Fermilab and one located 735 km away at the Soudan Mine in Minnesota, to make precise measurements of $ν_μ$ disappearance oscillation parameters. We present recent results from the first two years of NuMI beam operations, including the precise measurement of the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters and the search for sterile neutrinos. Future prospects for MINOS will also be discussed, including an improved limit on the $θ_{13}$ mixing angle by searching for $ν_e$…
A search for a sidereal modulation in the MINOS near detector neutrino data was performed. If present, this signature could be a consequence of Lorentz and CPT violation as predicted by a class of extensions to the Standard Model. No evidence for a sidereal signal in the data set was found, implying that there is no significant change in neutrino propagation that depends on the direction of the neutrino beam in a sun-centered inertial frame. Upper limits on the magnitudes of the Lorentz and CPT violating terms in these extensions to the Standard Model lie between 0.01-1% of the maximum expecte…
This is an updated version of the NOvA proposal. The detector is a 30 kiloton tracking calorimeter, 15.7 m by 15.7 m by 132 m long, with alternating horizontal and vertical rectangular cells of liquid scintillator contained in PVC extrusion modules. Light from each 15.7 m long cell of liquid scintillator filled PVC is collected by a wavelength shifting fiber and routed to an avalanche photodiode pixel. The reach of NOvA for sin^2(2_theta_13) and related topics is increased relative to earlier versions of the proposal with the assumption of increased protons available from the Fermilab Main Inj…
The NuMI neutrino beam line and the MINOS experiment represent a major investment of US High Energy Physics in the area of neutrino physics. The forthcoming results could decisively establish neutrino oscillations as the underlying physics mechanism for the atmospheric $\numu$ deficit and provide a precise measurement of the corresponding oscillation parameters, $\dmsq23$ and $\sinsq2t23$.neutrino sector may well be within our reach. The full potential of the NuMI neutrino beam can be exploited by complementing the MINOS detector, under construction, with a new detector(s) placed at some off-a…
The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) experiment's primary goal is the precision measurement of the neutrino oscillation parameters in the atmospheric neutrino sector. This long-baseline experiment uses Fermilab's NuMI beam, measured with a Near Detector at Fermilab, and again 735 km later using a Far Detector in the Soudan Mine Underground Lab in northern Minnesota. The detectors are magnetized iron/scintillator calorimeters. The Far Detector has been operational for cosmic ray and atmospheric neutrino data from July of 2003, the Near Detector from September 2004, and the NuMI…
Neutrino interaction rates for experiments placed off axis in the NuMI beam are calculated. Primary proton beam energy is 120 GeV and four locations at 810 km from target and 6, 12, 30 and 40 km off axis are considered. This report is part of the Joint FNAL/BNL Future Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment Study.
The Minos+ experiment is an extension of the Minos experiment at a higher energy and more intense neutrino beam, with the data collection having begun in the fall of 2013. The neutrino beam is provided by the Neutrinos from the Main Injector (NuMI) beam-line at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). The detector apparatus consists of two main detectors, one underground at Fermilab and the other in Soudan, Minnesota with the purpose of studying neutrino oscillations at a base line of 735 km. The original data acquisition system has been running for several years collecting data from …
Updating our previous measurements with new data and analysis modifications, we report preliminary results on the energy-dependent deficit of muon neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam as observed with the MINOS Far Detector located 735 km away in the Soudan Underground Laboratory. From an exposure of 2.50x10^20 protons on target, we observe 563 charged-current nu_mu interaction candidates in the Far Detector, where 738+/-30 events are expected in the absence of neutrino oscillations. We have analyzed these data assuming two-flavor nu_mu to nu_tau oscillations. From a simultaneous fit to the r…
The MINOS long-baseline experiment is using the NuMI neutrino beam to make precise measurements of neutrino flavor oscillations in the "atmospheric" neutrino sector. MINOS observes the $ν_μ$ disappearance oscillations seen in atmospheric neutrinos, tests possible disappearance to sterile $ν$ by measuring the neutral current flux, and extends our reach towards the so far unseen $θ_{13}$ by looking for $ν_e$ appearance in this $ν_μ$ beam. The magnetized MINOS detectors also allow tests of CPT conservation by discriminating between neutrinos and anti-neutrinos on an event-by-event basis. The inte…
Following a 7-year run with the MINOS experiment from 2005 to 2012, the MINOS+ long-baseline neutrino experiment started operations in September 2013. Utilizing the MINOS Near and Far Detectors at Fermilab and northern Minnesota, respectively, and measuring the new medium-energy NuMI neutrino beam over baseline of 735 km, MINOS+ has accumulated an exposure of $1.7\times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target. In this paper, we present preliminary results from the MINOS+run. In addition, we report on improved results from a three-neutrino flavor analysis of the full $14\times 10^{20}$ MINOS-era beam sample…
The NuMI facility at Fermilab will provide an extremely intense beam of neutrinos for the MINOS neutrino-oscillation experiment. The spacious and fully-outfitted MINOS near detector hall will be the ideal venue for a high-statistics, high-resolution $ν$ and $\nubar$--nucleon/nucleus scattering experiment. The experiment described here will measure neutrino cross-sections and probe nuclear effects essential to present and future neutrino-oscillation experiments. Moreover, with the high NuMI beam intensity, the experiment will either initially address or significantly improve our knowledge of a …
I describe two new searches for sterile neutrino oscillations from the MINOS and Daya Bay experiments. MINOS looked for evidence through muon neutrino disappearance with data collected from the NuMI neutrino beam. Daya Bay searched for evidence through electron antineutrino disappearance using data collected from nuclear reactors. I explain how the MINOS and Daya Bay searches were combined to produce constraints on the same phase space as LSND and MiniBooNE. Finally, I present the status of the sterile neutrino search using data from MINOS+.
The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation search (MINOS) uses two detectors separated by 735km to measure a beam of neutrinos created by the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The experiment has recently reported an observation of muon-neutrino disappearance consistent with neutrino oscillations. We describe the manner in which the experiment's results depend on the correct understanding and modeling of hadronic systems.
The MINOS experiment, operating in the NuMI beam since 2005, has provided the most precise measurement of the atmospheric mass splitting $|Δm^2_{32}|$, and the recent combination of the $ν_μ$, $ν_e$, and atmospheric neutrino samples has provided some evidence of non-maximal mixing, and hints about the neutrino mass hierarchy and the $θ_{23}$ octant. Construction of the NOvA experiment, situated off-axis in the upgraded NuMI beam, is almost complete. Over the coming years it will have significant power to probe the questions of the mass hierarchy, $θ_{23}$ octant, and the possibility of $\mathc…
Using a NuMI beam exposure of 7.1 /times 10^20 protons-on-target, the MINOS long-baseline experiment has performed a search for active to sterile neutrino mixing over a distance of 735 km. Details of the analysis are provided, along with results from comparisons with standard three neutrino oscillations and fits to a 3+1 model including oscillations into one sterile neutrino. An outlook on the future sterile neutrino related contributions from MINOS and the proposed MINOS+ project is also presented.
We searched for a sidereal modulation in the rate of neutrinos produced by the NuMI beam and observed by the MINOS far detector. The detection of such harmonic signals could be a signature of neutrino-antineutrino mixing due to Lorentz and CPT violation as described by the Standard Model Extension framework. We found no evidence for these sidereal signals and we placed limits on the coefficients in this theory describing the effect. This is the first report of limits on these neutrino-antineutrino mixing coefficients.
The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab was designed to be a definitive test of the LSND evidence for neutrino oscillations and has recently reported first results of a search for electron-neutrino appearance in a muon-neutrino Booster beam. No significant excess of events was observed at higher energies, but a sizable excess of events was observed at lower energies. The lack of the excess at higher energies allowed MiniBooNE to rule out simple two-neutrino oscillations as an explanation of the LSND signal. However, the excess at lower energies is presently unexplained. A new data set of neutrino…
We discuss synergies in the combination of the first-generation JHF to Super-Kamiokande and NuMI off-axis superbeam experiments. With synergies we mean effects which go beyond simply adding the statistics of the two experiments. As a first important result, we do not observe interesting synergy effects in the combination of the two experiments as they are planned right now. However, we find that with minor modifications, such as a different NuMI baseline or a partial antineutrino running, one could do much richer physics with both experiments combined. Specifically, we demonstrate that one cou…
MINOS is a two-detector on-axis experiment based at Fermilab. The NuMI neutrino beam encounters the MINOS Near Detector 1 km downstream before travelling 734 km through the Earth's crust, to reach the Far Detector located at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Northern Minnesota. By searching for oscillations driven by a large mass splitting, MINOS is sensitive to the existence of sterile neutrinos. This poster will present results of a search for sterile neutrinos that is sensitive to the parameter space suggested by LSND and MiniBooNE. Both charged current numu and neutral current neutrino …
The NuMI Off-Axis v Appearance (NOvA) experiment is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using a neutrino source created from the NuMI Beamline at Fermilab. The experiment will study the oscillations of muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos using two functionally identical plastic, liquid scintillator filled detectors placed 14 milliradians off-axis to the NuMI beam. Charged current neutrino interactions will be used to observe the neutrino flavor from identification of the final state lepton. Reconstruction of muon charged particle tracks plays an important role in both the short te…
The MINOS experiment is a long-baseline neutrino experiment designed to study neutrino behaviour, in particular the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations. MINOS sends the NuMI neutrino beam through two detectors, a Near Detector 1 km downstream from the beam source at Fermilab, and a Far Detector 735 km away in the Soudan Mine in Minnesota. MINOS has been taking beam data since 2005. This document summarises recent neutrino oscillations results, with particular emphasis on electron neutrino appearance, which probes the angle $θ_{13}$ of the neutrino mass mixing matrix. For an exposure of 8.2$\ti…
Fermilab has had a very active long baseline neutrino program since initiation of the NuMI project in 1998. Commissioned in 2005, the NuMI beam with 400 kW design power has been in operation for the MINOS neutrino oscillation program since that time. Upgrade of NuMI to 700 kW for NOvA is now well advanced, with implementation of the beam upgrades to be accomplished in 2012-2013. Design development for the next generation LBNE neutrino beam is now a major ongoing effort. We report here salient features and constraints for each of these beams, as well as significant challenges both experienced a…
Long baseline neutrino oscillation physics in the U.S. is centered at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), in particular at the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beamline commissioned in 2004-2005. Already, the MINOS experiment has published its first results confirming the disappearance of $ν_μ$'s across a 735 km baseline. The forthcoming NO$ν$A experiment will search for the transition $ν_μ\toν_e$ and use this transition to understand the mass heirarchy of neutrinos. These, as well as other conceptual ideas for future experiments using the NuMI beam, will be discussed. The t…
This letter reports on a search for $ν_μ\to ν_e$ transitions by the MINOS experiment based on a \unit[$3.14\times10^{20}$]{protons-on-target} exposure in the Fermilab NuMI beam. We observe 35 events in the Far Detector with a background of $27\pm 5 {\rm (stat.)} \pm 2 {\rm (syst.)$ events predicted by the measurements in the Near Detector. If interpreted in terms of $ν_μ\to ν_e$ oscillations, this 1.5 $σ$ excess of events is consistent with $\sin^{2}(2θ_{13})$ comparable to the CHOOZ limit when $|\delmsq{}|$=\unit[2.43$\times 10^{-3}$] {${\rm eV^{2}}$} and \sinsq{23}=1.0 are assumed.
The MINOS Collaboration continues its search for $ν_e$ appearance in the NuMI (Neutrinos at the Main Injector) beam at Fermilab. Neutrinos in the beam interact in the Near Detector, located 1 km from the beam source, allowing us to characterize the backgrounds present in our analysis. In particular, we can estimate the number of $ν_e$ candidate events we expect to see in the Far Detector (735 km away, in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota) in the presence or absence of $ν_μ\rightarrow ν_e$ oscillation. Recent efforts to improve the sensitivity of the analysis, including upgrades to the even…
The MINOS experiment observes the NuMI beam produced by the Main Injector accelerator at two detector stations, one 1 km and the other 735 km from the neutrino production target. From the disappearance of neutrinos in flight between the two detectors, we measure the neutrino oscillation parameters $Δm_{23}^2$ and $\sin^2(2θ_{23})$ and update our previously published result. Additionally, we have searched for evidence of additional light neutrino families which do not couple to the weak interaction. Finally, we discuss the status of our search for the appearance of $ν_{e}$, an effect expected i…
The MINOS experiment took data for seven years between May 2005 and April 2012. Since then it has been reborn as the new MINOS+ experiment in the upgraded medium energy NuMI beam and started taking data in September 2013. An update to the MINOS standard oscillations three-flavour disappearance analysis is presented which includes 28% more atmospheric neutrino data. This combined three-flavour analysis calculates an atmospheric parameter best-fit point of $Δm_{32}^{2}=2.37^{+0.11}_{-0.07} \times 10^{-3}$~eV$^{2}$ and $\sin^{2}θ_{23}=0.43^{+0.19}_{-0.05}$ for the inverted hierarchy, for which th…
Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detectors are ideally suited for studying neutrino interactions and probing the parameters that characterize neutrino oscillations. The ability to drift ionization particles over long distances in purified argon and to trigger on abundant scintillation light allows for excellent particle identification and triggering capability. In these proceedings the details of the ArgoNeuT test-beam project will be presented after a brief introduction to the detector technique. ArgoNeuT is a 175 liter detector exposed to Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beamline. The first neut…
The energy dependence of the neutrino-iron and antineutrino-iron inclusive charged-current cross sections and their ratio have been measured using a high-statistics sample with the MINOS Near Detector exposed to the NuMI beam from the Main Injector at Fermilab. Neutrino and antineutrino fluxes were determined using a low hadronic energy subsample of charged-current events. We report measurements of neutrino-Fe (antineutrinoFe) cross section in the energy range 3-50 GeV (5-50 GeV) with precision of 2-8% (3-9%) and their ratio which is measured with precision 2-8%. The data set spans the region …
We report constraints on antineutrino oscillation parameters that were obtained by using the two MINOS detectors to measure the 7% muon antineutrino component of the NuMI neutrino beam. In the Far Detector, we select 130 events in the charged-current muon antineutrino sample, compared to a prediction of 136.4 +/- 11.7(stat) ^{+10.2}_{-8.9}(syst) events under the assumption |dm2bar|=2.32x10^-3 eV^2, snthetabar=1.0. Assuming no oscillations occur at the Near Detector baseline, a fit to the two-flavor oscillation approximation constrains |dm2bar|<3.37x10^-3 eV^2 at the 90% confidence level with s…
A search for disappearance of active neutrinos over a baseline of 735 km was conducted using the NuMI neutrino beam and the MINOS detectors. The data analyzed correspond to an exposure of 3.18x10^{20} protons on target. The data are fitted to neutrino oscillation models in which mixing with one sterile neutrino is assumed. A comparison of the neutral-current-like spectrum at the FD with the expectation derived from the near detector measurement shows that the fraction of disappearing muon neutrinos converting to a sterile state is less than 52% at the 90% confidence level. In addition, the pos…
NOvA is a long-baseline accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiment that is optimized for $ν_e$ measurements. It uses the upgraded NuMI beam from Fermilab and measures electron-neutrino appearance and muon-neutrino disappearance at its Far Detector in Ash River, Minnesota. The $ν_e$ appearance analysis at NOvA aims to resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy problem and to constrain the CP-violating phase. The first measurement of electron-neutrino appearance in NOvA based on its first year's data was produced in 2015, providing solid evidence of $ν_e$ oscillation with the NuMI beam line and …
MINOS is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment designed to make precision measurements of the neutrino mixing parameters associated with the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting. Using a neutrino beam from the Main Injector (NuMI) facility at Fermilab, it compares the neutrino energy spectrum for neutrino interactions observed in two large detectors located at Fermilab and in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota at a distance of 735km. We describe initial results for electron neutrino appearance in MINOS after two years of data-taking. We observe 35 events in the Far Detector with a …
The MINOS long baseline experiment has been collecting neutrino beam data since March 2005 and has accumulated 3 x 10^{20} protons-on-target (POT) to date. MINOS uses Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beam which is measured by two steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters, one at Fermilab and the other 735 km downstream, in northern Minnesota. By observing the oscillatory structure in the neutrino energy spectrum, MINOS can precisely measure the neutrino oscillation parameters in the atmospheric sector. From analysis of the first year of data, corresponding to 1.27 x 10^{20} POT, these parameters were d…
MINOS searches for neutrino oscillations using the disappearance of muon neutrinos between two detectors, over a baseline of 735 km. We recently reported the most precise measurement of neutrino oscillations in the atmospheric sector and the first tagged measurement of antineutrino oscillations. The neutrino mass splitting and mixing angle are measured to be $|Δm^{2}| = 2.32_{-0.08}^{+0.12} \times 10^{-3}\,eV^{2}$ and $\sin^{2}2θ> 0.90$ (90% C.L.) for an exposure of $7.25 \times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target (PoT). Antineutrino oscillation parameters are measured as $Δ\bar{m}^{2}=(3.36^{+0.46}_{-…
After a brief introduction to neutrino oscillations and a review of the world knowledge of neutrino oscillation parameters, we introduce two current neutrino oscillation experiments, MINOS and MiniBooNE. MINOS makes precise measurements of the oscillation parameters |Δm^{2}_{32}| and sin^{2} (2θ_{23}). MiniBooNE tests neutrino oscillations in the parameter region reported by the LSND experiment, which would require a new neutrino state. We review recent experimental results from both experiments and give an outlook on future measurements.
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, whi…
NOvA is a long-baseline accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiment that is optimized for $ν_μ\toν_e$ measurements. It uses the upgraded NuMI beam from Fermilab and measures electron-neutrino appearance and muon-neutrino disappearance at its Far Detector in Ash River, Minnesota. The $ν_e$ appearance analysis at NOvA aims to resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy problem and to constrain the CP-violating phase. The first data set of $2.74\times10^{20}$ protons on target (POT) equivalent exposure taken by NOvA has been analyzed. The first measurement of electron-neutrino appearance in NOvA pr…
Knowledge of the neutrino flux produced by the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beamline is essential to the neutrino oscillation and neutrino interaction measurements of the MINERvA, MINOS+, NOvA and MicroBooNE experiments at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. We have produced a flux prediction which uses all available and relevant hadron production data, incorporating measurements of particle production off of thin targets as well as measurements of particle yields from a spare NuMI target exposed to a 120 GeV proton beam. The result is the most precise flux prediction achieved for …
The MINOS experiment ran from 2003 until 2012 and collected a data sample including 10.71x10^20 protons-on-target (POT) of beam neutrinos, 3.36x10^20 POT of beam antineutrinos and an atmospheric neutrino exposure of 37.88 kt-yrs. The final measurement of the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters, dm^2_32 and theta_23, came from a full three flavour oscillation analysis of the combined CC nu_mu and CC anti-nu_mu beam and atmospheric samples and the CC nu_e and CC anti-nu_e appearance samples. This analysis yielded the most precise measurement of the atmospheric mass splitting dm^2_32 perf…
The MINOS experiment took data from 2005 up until 2012. This was superseded by MINOS+, the continuation of the two-detector, on-axis, long-baseline experiment based at Fermilab, and at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota. By searching for the deficit of muon neutrinos at the Far Detector, MINOS/MINOS+ is sensitive to the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters $Δm^{2}_{32}$ and $θ_{23}$. By using the full MINOS data set looking at both \numu disappearance and \nue appearance in both neutrino and anti-neutrino configurations at the NuMI beam along with atmospheric neutri…
ArgoNeuT, or Argon Neutrino Test, is a 170 liter liquid argon time projection chamber designed to collect neutrino interactions from the NuMI beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. ArgoNeuT operated in the NuMI low-energy beam line directly upstream of the MINOS Near Detector from September 2009 to February 2010, during which thousands of neutrino and antineutrino events were collected. The MINOS Near Detector was used to measure muons downstream of ArgoNeuT. Though ArgoNeuT is primarily an R&D project, the data collected provide a unique opportunity to measure neutrino cross sections …
The MINOS experiment has used the world's most powerful neutrino beam to make precision neutrino oscillation measurements. By observing the disappearance of muon neutrinos, MINOS has made the world's most precise measurement of the larger neutrino mass splitting, and has measured the neutrino mixing angle $θ_{23}$. Using a dedicated antineutrino beam, MINOS has made the first direct precision measurements of the corresponding antineutrino parameters. A search for \nue and \nuebar appearance has enabled a measurement of the mixing angle $θ_{13}$. A measurement of the neutral-current interaction…
NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using Fermilab's 700 kW NuMI muon neutrino beam. Two functionally identical scintillator detectors are placed off the beam axis, separated by 810 km oscillation baseline. Both detectors have high active material fractions and are finely segmented allowing for precise identification and analysis of neutrino interactions. By observing both the disappearance of muon (anti)neutrinos and appearance of electron (anti)neutrinos in the beam, NOvA can impose constraints on the yet undetermined parameters of neutrino oscillation phenomenon, such as…
NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment that will use the NuMI beam originating at Fermilab. NOvA enables the study of two oscillation channels: $ν_μ$ disappearance and $ν_{e}$ appearance. It consists of two functionally identical detectors, the near detector (ND) at Fermilab and the far detector (FD) near International Falls in Northern Minnesota. The ND will be used to study the neutrino beam spectrum and composition before oscillation, and measure background rate to the $ν_e$ appearance search. In this paper, I describe a data-driven technique to estimate the neutral current…
NOvA is a next generation neutrino oscillation experiment designed to search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations by comparing electron neutrino event rates in a Near Detector at Fermilab with the rates observed in a large Far Detector at Ash River, Minnesota, 810 km from Fermilab. The detectors are totally active, segmented, liquid scintillator detectors and are located 14 mrad off the NuMI beam axis. The Far Detector has begun construction and will begin taking data in early 2013. The experiment aims to measure the neutrino mixing angle theta_13 and will push the search for el…
We found 140 neutrino-induced muons in 854.24 live days in the MINOS far detector. We looked for evidence of neutrino disappearance in this data set by computing the ratio of the number of low momentum muons to the sum of the number of high momentum and unknown momentum muons for both data and Monte Carlo expectation in the absence of neutrino oscillations. The ratio of data and Monte Carlo ratios is consistent with an oscillation signal. A fit to the data for the oscillation parameters excludes the null oscillation hypothesis at the 94% confidence level. We separated the muons by charge sign …
Among the most important tasks of neutrino oscillation experiments is correctly estimating the parent neutrino energy from the by-products of their interactions. Large uncertainties in our current understanding of such processes can significantly hamper this effort. We explore several recent measurements made using the \mnv{} detector in the few-GeV NuMI muon neutrino beam at Fermilab: the differential cross-section vs. $Q^2$ for charged-current quasi-elastic scattering, the differential cross-sections vs. pion angle and pion kinetic energy for resonant single charged pion production, and the …
