Published March 10, 2009 | Version v1
Report

Recent Results from the MINOS Experiment

Description

MINOS is an accelerator neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab. An intense high energy neutrino beam is produced at Fermilab and sent to a near detector on the Fermilab site and also to a 5 kTon far detector 735 km away in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota. The experiment has now had several years of running with millions of events in the near detector and hundreds of events recorded in the far detector. I will report on the recent results from this experiment which include precise measurement of |Δm232|, analysis of neutral current data to limit the component of sterile neutrinos and the search for νμ → νe conversion. The focus will be on the analysis of data for νμ → νe conversion. Using data from an exposure of 3.14 x 1020 protons on target, we have selected electron type events in both the near and the far detector. The near detector is used to measure the background which is extrapolated to the far detector. We have found 35 events in the signal region with a background expectation of 27 ± 5(stat) ± 2(syst). Using this observation we set a 90% C.L. limit of sin2 2θ13 < 0.29 for (delta)cp = 0 and normal mass hierarchy. Further analysis is under way to reduce backgrounds and improve sensitivity.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://www.bnl.gov/isd/documents/44266.pdf; PURL: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/953664-MvMjy7/

Additional details

Publishing Information

Imprint Pagination
vp.
Report number
BNL--82253-2009-CP

Conference

Title
8. International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes
Dates
10-13 Mar 2009
Place
Venice (Italy)

Optional Information

Contract/Grant/Project number
K-04-01; AC02-98CH10886
Funding organization
DOE - Office Of Science (United States)