Electron Neutrino Appearance in the MINOS Experiment

Citation

Orchanian, Mhair-Armen Hagop (2012) Electron Neutrino Appearance in the MINOS Experiment. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/T4JJ-BM32. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:05302012-124605015

Abstract

This thesis describes a search for ν_e appearance in the two-detector long-baseline MINOS neutrino experiment at Fermilab, based on a data set representing an exposure of 8.2 x 10²⁰ protons on the NuMI target. The analysis detailed herein represents an increase in sensitivity to the θ₁₃ mixing angle of approximately 25% over previous analyses, due to improvements in the event discriminant and fitting technique. Based on our observation, we constrain the value of θ₁₃ further, finding 2sin²θ₂₃ sin²2θ₁₃ < 0.12 (0.20) at the 90% confidence level for δ_CP = 0 and the normal (inverted) neutrino mass hierarchy. The best-fit value is 2sin²θ₂₃ sin²2θ₁₃ = 0.041^+0.047_-0.031(0.079^+0.071_-0.053) under the same assumptions. We exclude the θ₁₃ = 0 hypothesis at the 89% confidence level.

Thesis Files