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First observations of separated atmospheric nu(mu) and (nu)over-bar(mu) events in the MINOS detector

Authors :
Adamson, P Alexopoulos, T Allison, WWM Alner, GJ and Anderson, K Andreopoulos, C Andrews, M Andrews, R and Arroyo, C Avvakumov, S Ayres, DS Baller, B Barish, B and Barker, MA Barnes, PD Barr, G Barrett, WL Beall, E and Becker, BR Belias, A Bergfeld, T Bernstein, RH and Bhattacharya, D Bishai, M Blake, A Bocean, V Bock, B and Bock, GJ Boehm, J Boehnlein, DJ Bogert, D Border, PM and Bower, C Boyd, S Buckley-Geer, E Byon-Wagner, A Cabrera, A Chapman, JD Chase, TR Chernichenko, SK Childress, S and Choudhary, BC Cobb, JH Cossairt, JD Courant, H and Crane, DA Culling, AJ Dawson, JW DeMuth, DM De Santo, A and Dierckxsens, M Diwan, MV Dorman, M Drake, G Ducar, R and Durkin, T Erwin, AR Escobar, CO Evans, J Fackler, OD and Harris, EF Feldman, GJ Felt, N Fields, TH Ford, R and Frohne, MV Gallagher, HR Gebhard, M Godley, A Gogos, J Goodman, MC Gornushkin, Y Gouffon, P Grashorn, E and Grossman, N Grudzinski, JJ Grzelak, K Guarino, V Habig, A Halsall, R Hanson, J Harris, D Harris, PG and Hartnell, J Hartouni, EP Hatcher, R Heller, K Hill, N and Ho, Y Howcroft, C Hylen, J Ignatenko, M Indurthy, D and Irwin, GM James, C Jenner, L Jensen, D Joffe-Minor, T Kafka, T Kang, HJ Kasahara, SMS Kilmer, J Kim, H and Koizumi, G Kopp, S Kordosky, M Koskinen, DJ Kostin, M Krakauer, DA Kumaratunga, S Ladran, AS Lang, K and Laughton, C Lebedev, A Lee, R Lee, WY Libkind, MA and Liu, J Litchfield, PJ Litchfield, RP Longley, NP Lucas, P Luebke, W Madani, S Maher, E Makeev, V Mann, WA and Marchionni, A Marino, AD Marshak, ML Marshall, JS and McDonald, J McGowan, A Meier, JR Merzon, GI Messier, MD and Michael, DG Milburn, RH Miller, JL Miller, WH and Mishra, SR Miyagawa, PS Moore, C Morfin, J Morse, R and Mualem, L Mufson, S Murgia, S Murtagh, MJ Musser, J and Naples, D Nelson, C Nelson, JK Newman, HB Nezrick, F and Nichol, RJ Nicholls, TC Ochoa-Ricoux, JP Oliver, J and Oliver, WP Onuchin, VA Osiecki, T Ospanov, R Paley, J and Paolone, V Para, A Patzak, T Pavlovich, Z Pearce, GF and Pearson, N Peck, CW Perry, C Peterson, EA Petyt, DA and Ping, H Piteira, R Pla-Dalmau, A Plunkett, RK Price, LE Proga, M Pushka, DR Rahman, D Rameika, RA Raufer, TM Read, AL Rebel, B Reyna, DE Rosenfeld, C Rubin, HA Ruddick, K Ryabov, VA Saakyan, R Sanchez, MC and Saoulidou, N Schneps, J Schoessow, PV Schreiner, P and Schwienhorst, R Semenov, VK Seun, SM Shanahan, P Shield, PD Smart, W Smirnitsky, V Smith, C Smith, PN Sousa, A Speakman, B Stamoulis, P Stefanik, A Sullivan, P and Swan, JM Symes, PA Tagg, N Talaga, RL Tetteh-Lartey, E and Thomas, J Thompson, J Thomson, MA Thron, JL and Trendler, R Trevor, J Trostin, I Tsarev, VA Tzanakos, G and Urheim, J Vahle, P Vakili, M Vaziri, K Velissaris, C and Verebryusov, V Viren, B Wai, L Ward, CP Ward, DR and Watabe, M Weber, A Webb, RC Wehmann, A West, N and White, C White, RF Wojcicki, SG Wright, DM Wu, QK and Yan, WG Yang, T Yumiceva, FX Yun, JC Zheng, H Zois, M Zwaska, R MMINOS Collaboration
Publication Year :
2006

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 nu(mu) and (nu) over bar (mu) 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-up/down(data)/R-up/down(MC)=0.62(-0.14)(+0.19)(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 nu(mu) and (nu) over bar (mu) interactions are separated. The ratio of (nu) over bar (mu) to nu(mu) events in the data is compared to the Monte Carlo expectation assuming neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate in the same manner, giving R-(nu) over bar mu/nu(data)(mu)/R-(nu) over bar mu/nu(MC)(mu)=0.96(-0.27)(+0.38)(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 nu(mu) and (nu) over bar (mu).

Subjects

Subjects :
Physics::Instrumentation and Detectors
High Energy Physics::Experiment

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Accession number :
edsair.od......2127..ddb949a5ee0d7326512d499c402f5ccb

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