71 research outputs found
Atmospheric neutrino induced muons in the MACRO detector
A measurement of the flux of neutrino-induced muons using the MACRO detector
is presented. Different event topologies, corresponding to different neutrino
parent energies can be detected. The upward throughgoing muon sample is the
larger event sample. The observed upward-throughgoing muons are 26% fewer than
expected and the zenith angle distribution does not fit with the expected one.
Assuming neutrino oscillations, both measurements suggest maximum mixing and
Dm2 of a few times 10-3 eV2. The other samples are due to the internally
produced events and to upward-going stopping muons. These data show a regular
deficit of observed events in each angular bin, as expected assuming neutrino
oscillations with maximum mixing, in agreement with the analysis of the
upward-throughgoing muon sample.Comment: 7 pages 6 figures to appear in the proceedings of XVIII International
Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics (Neutrino'98), Takayama,
Japan 4-9 June, 199
Measurement of the atmospheric neutrino-induced upgoing muon flux using MACRO
We present a measurement of the flux of neutrino-induced upgoing muons
(~100 GeV) using the MACRO detector. The ratio of the number of observed
to expected events integrated over all zenith angles is 0.74 +/- 0.036 (stat)
+/- 0.046(systematic) +/- 0.13 (theoretical). The observed zenith distribution
for -1.0 < cos(theta) < -0.1 does not fit well with the no oscillation
expectation, giving a maximum probability for chi^2 of 0.1%. The acceptance of
the detector has been extensively studied using downgoing muons, independent
analyses and Monte-Carlo simulations. The other systematic uncertainties cannot
be the source of the discrepancies between the data and expectations. We have
investigated whether the observed number of events and the shape of the zenith
distribution can be explained by a neutrino oscillation hypothesis. Fitting
either the flux or zenith distribution independently yields mixing parameters
of sin^2 (2theta)=1.0 and delta m^2 of a few times 10^-3 eV^2. However, the
observed zenith distribution does not fit well with any expectations giving a
maximum probability for chi^2 of 5% for the best oscillation hypothesis, and
the combined probability for the shape and number of events is 17%. We conclude
that these data favor a neutrino oscillation hypothesis, but with unexplained
structure in the zenith distribution not easily explained by either the
statistics or systematics of the experiment.Comment: 7 pages (two-column) with 4 figure
Limits on dark matter WIMPs using upward-going muons in the MACRO detector
We perform an indirect search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles
(WIMPs) using the MACRO detector to look for neutrino-induced upward-going
muons resulting from the annihilation of WIMPs trapped in the Sun and Earth.
The search is conducted in various angular cones centered on the Sun and Earth
to accommodate a range of WIMP masses. No significant excess over the
background from atmospheric neutrinos is seen and limits are placed on the
upward-going muon fluxes from Sun and Earth. These limits are used to constrain
neutralino particle parameters from supersymmetric theory, including those
suggested by recent results from DAMA/NaI.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
SEARCH FOR SLOWLY MOVING MAGNETIC MONOPOLES WITH THE MACRO DETECTOR
A search for slowly moving magnetic monopoles in the cosmic radiation was conducted from October 1989 to November 1991 using the large liquid scintillator detector subsystem of the first supermodule of the MACRO detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The absence of candidates established an upper limit on the monopole flux of 5.6 x 10(-15) cm-2 sr-1 s-1 at 90% confidence level in the velocity range of 10(-4) less than or similar to beta < 4 x 10(-3). This result places a new constraint on the abundance of monopoles trapped in our solar system
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