9 research outputs found
First Measurement of Monoenergetic Muon Neutrino Charged Current Interactions
We report the first measurement of monoenergetic muon neutrino charged
current interactions. MiniBooNE has isolated 236 MeV muon neutrino events
originating from charged kaon decay at rest ()
at the NuMI beamline absorber. These signal -carbon events are
distinguished from primarily pion decay in flight and
backgrounds produced at the target station and decay pipe
using their arrival time and reconstructed muon energy. The significance of the
signal observation is at the 3.9 level. The muon kinetic energy,
neutrino-nucleus energy transfer (), and total cross
section for these events is extracted. This result is the first known-energy,
weak-interaction-only probe of the nucleus to yield a measurement of
using neutrinos, a quantity thus far only accessible through electron
scattering.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Neutral currents and tests of three-neutrino unitarity in long-baseline experiments
We examine a strategy for using neutral current measurements in long-baseline
neutrino oscillation experiments to put limits on the existence of more than
three light, active neutrinos. We determine the relative contributions of
statistics, cross section uncertainties, event misidentification and other
systematic errors to the overall uncertainty of these measurements. As specific
case studies, we make simulations of beams and detectors that are like the K2K,
T2K, and MINOS experiments. We find that the neutral current cross section
uncertainty and contamination of the neutral current signal by charge current
events allow a sensitivity for determining the presence of sterile neutinos at
the 0.10--0.15 level in probablility.Comment: 24 pages, Latex2e, uses graphicx.sty, 2 postscript figures. Submitted
to the Neutrino Focus Issue of New Journal Physics at http://www.njp.or
A Search for Electron Antineutrino Appearance at the 1 Scale
The MiniBooNE Collaboration reports initial results from a search for
oscillations. A signal-blind analysis was
performed using a data sample corresponding to protons on
target. The data are consistent with background prediction across the full
range of neutrino energy reconstructed assuming quasielastic scattering, MeV: 144 electron-like events have been observed in this
energy range, compared to an expectation of events. No
significant excess of events has been observed, both at low energy, 200-475
MeV, and at high energy, 475-1250 MeV. The data are inconclusive with respect
to antineutrino oscillations suggested by data from the Liquid Scintillator
Neutrino Detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
A search for muon neutrino and antineutrino disappearance in MiniBooNE
The MiniBooNE Collaboration reports a search for \numu and \numubar
disappearance in the \dmsq region of a few \evsq. These measurements are
important for constraining models with extra types of neutrinos, extra
dimensions an d CPT violation. Fits to the shape of the \numu and \numubar
energy spectra reveal no evidence for disappearance at 90% confidence level
(CL) in either mode. This is the first test of \numubar disappearance between
\dmsq=0.1-10\evsq.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR
The MiniBooNE Detector
The MiniBooNE neutrino detector was designed and built to look for
muon-neutrino to electron-neutrino oscillations in the mixing parameter space
region where the LSND experiment reported a signal. The MiniBooNE experiment
used a beam energy and baseline that were an order of magnitude larger than
those of LSND so that the backgrounds and systematic errors would be completely
different. This paper provides a detailed description of the design, function,
and performance of the MiniBooNE detector.Comment: 46 pages, 21 figure
Improved Search for ν̅ [subscript μ]→ν̅ [subscript e] Oscillations in the MiniBooNE Experiment
The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab reports results from an analysis of ν̅ [subscript e] appearance data from 11.27×10[superscript 20] protons on target in the antineutrino mode, an increase of approximately a factor of 2 over the previously reported results. An event excess of 78.4±28.5 events (2.8σ) is observed in the energy range 200<E[subscript ν][superscript QE]<1250  MeV. If interpreted in a two-neutrino oscillation model, ν̅ [subscript μ]→ν̅ [subscript e] , the best oscillation fit to the excess has a probability of 66% while the background-only fit has a χ[superscript 2] probability of 0.5% relative to the best fit. The data are consistent with antineutrino oscillations in the 0.01<Δm[superscript 2]<1.0  eV[superscript 2] range and have some overlap with the evidence for antineutrino oscillations from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector. All of the major backgrounds are constrained by in situ event measurements so nonoscillation explanations would need to invoke new anomalous background processes. The neutrino mode running also shows an excess at low energy of 162.0±47.8 events (3.4σ) but the energy distribution of the excess is marginally compatible with a simple two neutrino oscillation formalism. Expanded models with several sterile neutrinos can reduce the incompatibility by allowing for CP violating effects between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations. © 2013 American Physical SocietyUnited States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Fermi National Accelerator Laborator
First Measurement of Monoenergetic Muon Neutrino Charged Current Interactions
We report the first measurement of monoenergetic muon neutrino charged current interactions. MiniBooNE has isolated 236 MeV muon neutrino events originating from charged kaon decay at rest (K+→μ+νμ) at the NuMI beamline absorber. These signal νμ-carbon events are distinguished from primarily pion decay in flight νμ and ¯νμ backgrounds produced at the target station and decay pipe using their arrival time and reconstructed muon energy. The significance of the signal observation is at the 3.9σ level. The muon kinetic energy, neutrino-nucleus energy transfer (ω=Eν−Eμ), and total cross section for these events are extracted. This result is the first known-energy, weak-interaction-only probe of the nucleus to yield a measurement of ω using neutrinos, a quantity thus far only accessible through electron scattering
Dual baseline search for muon antineutrino disappearance at 0.1 eV² < <{\Delta}m² < 100 eV²
The MiniBooNE and SciBooNE collaborations report the results of a joint search for short baseline disappearance of ν̅[subscript μ] at Fermilab’s Booster Neutrino Beamline. The MiniBooNE Cherenkov detector and the SciBooNE tracking detector observe antineutrinos from the same beam, therefore the combined analysis of their data sets serves to partially constrain some of the flux and cross section uncertainties. Uncertainties in the ν[subscript μ] background were constrained by neutrino flux and cross section measurements performed in both detectors. A likelihood ratio method was used to set a 90% confidence level upper limit on ν̅[subscript μ] disappearance that dramatically improves upon prior limits in the Δm[superscript 2]=0.1–100  eV[superscript 2] region
The Neutrino Flux prediction at MiniBooNE
The Booster Neutrino Experiment (MiniBooNE) searches for numu-to-nue
oscillations using the O(1 GeV) neutrino beam produced by the Booster
synchrotron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). The Booster
delivers protons with 8 GeV kinetic energy (8.89 GeV/c momentum) to a beryllium
target, producing neutrinos from the decay of secondary particles in the beam
line. We describe the Monte Carlo simulation methods used to estimate the flux
of neutrinos from the beamline incident on the MiniBooNE detector for both
polarities of the focussing horn. The simulation uses the Geant4 framework for
propagating particles, accounting for electromagnetic processes and hadronic
interactions in the beamline materials, as well as the decay of particles. The
absolute double differential cross sections of pion and kaon production in the
simulation have been tuned to match external measurements, as have the hadronic
cross sections for nucleons and pions. The statistical precision of the flux
predictions is enhanced through reweighting and resampling techniques.
Systematic errors in the flux estimation have been determined by varying
parameters within their uncertainties, accounting for correlations where
appropriate