Limits on the oscillation plus decay model using published MINOS neutrino and antineutrino data

Full text: The neutrino oscillation model is the theoretical model that explains the so called anomalous neutrino phenomena. Models such as neutrino decay and decoherence failed to explain the neutrino experimental results. Nevertheless, it was proposed that the oscillation model could be the dominant model with the possibility to add alternative models to it and determine limits for the parameters of the additional models. In this phenomenological work we considered the neutrino oscillation plus decay model and used the published data from the MINOS experiment. MINOS is a long-baseline neutrino experiment with two magnetized detectors (the Near Detector at Fermilab, 1 km from the target and depth of 225 meters of water equivalent (mwe), and the Far Detector at Soudan, MN, 735 km from the target and depth of 2100 mwe) exposed to the NuMI (Neutrinos at the Main Injector) beam. We used recent results from neutrino and antineutrino configurations of the NuMI beam and fitted by a 2-flavor oscillation model - transition from νμ (ν-barμ) to ντ (ν-barτ). We show the best fit and allowed region found for neutrino and antineutrino data, reproducing the published results. We then combined the data and under the oscillation plus decay framework calculated 1D and 2D allowed regions to determine limits for the decay parameter. (author)