Study of antineutrino oscillations using accelerator and atmospheric data in MINOS

dc.contributor.advisorLang, Karol, 1955-
dc.creatorCao, Son Vanen
dc.date.accessioned2014-07-17T19:57:06Zen
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-22T22:26:20Z
dc.date.available2018-01-22T22:26:20Z
dc.date.issued2014-05en
dc.date.submittedMay 2014en
dc.date.updated2014-07-17T19:57:06Zen
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThe Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) is a long baseline experiment that was built for studying the neutrino oscillation phenomena. The MINOS experiment uses high intensity muon neutrino and antineutrino beams created by Neutrinos at the Main Injector facility (NuMI) at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Neutrino interactions are recorded by two sampling steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters: 0.98 kton Near Detector at Fermilab, IL and 5.4 kton Far Detector at the Soudan Underground Laboratory, MN. These two detectors are functionally identical, which helps to reduce the systematic uncertainties in the muon neutrino and antineutrino disappearance measurements. The Near Detector, located 1.04 km from the neutrino production target, is used to measure the initial beam composition and neutrino energy proximal to the neutrino source. The collected data at the Near Detector is then used to predict energy spectrum in the Far Detector. By comparing this prediction to collected data at the Far Detector, which is 735 km away from the target, it enables a measurement of a set of parameters that govern the neutrino oscillation phenomenon. The flexibility of the NuMI beam configuration and the magnetization of the MINOS detectors facilitate the identification of v[subscript mu] and v̄[subscript mu] charged-current interactions on an event-by-event basis. This enables one to measure neutrino and antineutrino oscillation parameters independently and therefore allows us to test the CPT symmetry in the lepton sector. To enhance the sensitivity of the oscillation parameters measurement, a number of techniques have been implemented. Event classification, shower energy estimation and energy resolution bin fitting, which are described in this dissertation, are three of these techniques. Moreover, the most stringent constraints on oscillation parameters can be achieved by combining multiple data sets. This dissertation reports the measurement of antineutrino oscillation parameters using the complete MINOS accelerator and atmospheric data set of charged-current v̄[subscript mu] events.en
dc.description.departmentPhysicsen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/25226en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.subjectNeutrinoen
dc.subjectNeutrino oscillationen
dc.subjectMINOSen
dc.subjectCPT invarianceen
dc.titleStudy of antineutrino oscillations using accelerator and atmospheric data in MINOSen
dc.typeThesisen

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