Observation of Electron Neutrino Appearance in the NuMI Beam with the NOvA Experiment
Loading...
If you need an accessible version of this item, please email your request to iusw@iu.edu so that they may create one and provide it to you.
Date
2015-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
[Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University
Permanent Link
Abstract
NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment that uses two functionally
identical detectors separated by 810 kilometers at locations 14 milliradians o -axis from
the NuMI muon neutrino beam at Fermilab. At these locations the beam energy peaks at
2 GeV. This baseline is the longest in the world for an accelerator-based neutrino
oscillation experiment, which enhances the sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering. The
experiment studies oscillations of the muon neutrino and anti-neutrino beam that is
produced. Both detectors completed commissioning in the summer of 2014 and continue
to collect data. One of the primary physics goals of the experiment is the measurement of
electron neutrino appearance in the muon neutrino beam which yields measurements of
the oscillation parameters $\sin^{2}2\theta_{13}$, $\delta$, and the neutrino mass ordering within the standard model of neutrino oscillations. This thesis presents the analysis of data collected between February 2014 and May 2015, corresponding to $3.52\times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target. In this first analysis NOvA recorded 6 electron neutrino candidates which is a $3.3\sigma$ observation of electron neutrino appearance. The T2K experiment performs the same measurement on a baseline of 295 kilometers and has a $1~\sigma$ preference for the normal mass ordering over the inverted ordering over the phase space of the CP violating parameter $\delta$, which is also weakly seen in the NOvA result. By the summer of 2016 NOvA will triple its statistics due to increased beam power and a completed detector. If electron neutrinos continue to be observed at the current rate NOvA will be able to establish a mass ordering preference at a similar confidence level to T2K.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Physics, 2015
Keywords
high energy physics, neutrinos, oscillation, long-baseline, NOvA
Citation
DOI
Link(s) to data and video for this item
Relation
Rights
Type
Doctoral Dissertation