English

First direct observation of muon antineutrino disappearance

High Energy Physics - Experiment 2011-08-17 v4

Abstract

This letter reports the first direct observation of muon antineutrino disappearance. The MINOS experiment has taken data with an accelerator beam optimized for muon antineutrino production, accumulating an exposure of 1.71×10201.71\times 10^{20} protons on target. In the Far Detector, 97 charged current muon antineutrino events are observed. The no-oscillation hypothesis predicts 156 events and is excluded at 6.3σ6.3\sigma. The best fit to oscillation yields Δmˉ2=(3.360.40+0.46(stat.)±0.06(syst.))×103\eV2\Delta \bar{m}^{2}=(3.36^{+0.46}_{-0.40}\textrm{(stat.)}\pm0.06\textrm{(syst.)})\times 10^{-3}\,\eV^{2}, sin2(2θˉ)=0.860.12+0.11(stat.)±0.01(syst.)\sin^{2}(2\bar{\theta})=0.86^{+0.11}_{-0.12}\textrm{(stat.)}\pm0.01\textrm{(syst.)}. The MINOS muon neutrino and muon antineutrino measurements are consistent at the 2.0% confidence level, assuming identical underlying oscillation parameters.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1104.0344,
  title  = {First direct observation of muon antineutrino disappearance},
  author = {MINOS collaboration and P. Adamson and C. Andreopoulos and D. J. Auty and D. S. Ayres and C. Backhouse and G. Barr and M. Bishai and A. Blake and G. J. Bock and D. J. Boehnlein and D. Bogert and S. Cavanaugh and D. Cherdack and S. Childress and B. C. Choudhary and J. A. B. Coelho and S. J. Coleman and L. Corwin and D. Cronin-Hennessy and I. Z. Danko and J. K. de Jong and N. E. Devenish and M. V. Diwan and M. Dorman and C. O. Escobar and J. J. Evans and E. Falk and G. J. Feldman and M. V. Frohne and H. R. Gallagher and R. A. Gomes and M. C. Goodman and P. Gouffon and N. Graf and R. Gran and N. Grant and K. Grzelak and A. Habig and D. Harris and J. Hartnell and R. Hatcher and A. Himmel and A. Holin and C. Howcroft and X. Huang and J. Hylen and J. Ilic and G. M. Irwin and Z. Isvan and D. E. Jaffe and C. James and D. Jensen and T. Kafka and S. M. S. Kasahara and G. Koizumi and S. Kopp and M. Kordosky and A. Kreymer and K. Lang and G. Lefeuvre and J. Ling and P. J. Litchfield and L. Loiacono and P. Lucas and W. A. Mann and M. L. Marshak and N. Mayer and A. M. McGowan and R. Mehdiyev and J. R. Meier and M. D. Messier and W. H. Miller and S. R. Mishra and J. Mitchell and C. D. Moore and J. Morfín and L. Mualem and S. Mufson and J. Musser and D. Naples and J. K. Nelson and H. B. Newman and R. J. Nichol and T. C. Nicholls and J. A. Nowak and J. P. Ochoa-Ricoux and W. P. Oliver and M. Orchanian and R. Ospanov and J. Paley and R. B. Patterson and G. Pawloski and G. F. Pearce and D. A. Petyt and S. Phan-Budd and R. K. Plunkett and X. Qiu and J. Ratchford and T. M. Raufer and B. Rebel and P. A. Rodrigues and C. Rosenfeld and H. A. Rubin and M. C. Sanchez and J. Schneps and P. Schreiner and P. Shanahan and A. Sousa and P. Stamoulis and M. Strait and N. Tagg and R. L. Talaga and E. Tetteh-Lartey and J. Thomas and M. A. Thomson and G. Tinti and R. Toner and G. Tzanakos and J. Urheim and P. Vahle and B. Viren and A. Weber and R. C. Webb and C. White and L. Whitehead and S. G. Wojcicki and T. Yang and R. Zwaska},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1104.0344},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

Six pages, four figures. This version published by Physical Review Letters