Antineutrino Oscillations in the Atmospheric Sector

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Abstract

This thesis presents measurements of the oscillations of muon antineutrinos in the atmospheric sector, where world knowledge of antineutrino oscillations lags well behind the knowledge of neutrinos, as well as a search for vμ → $\bar{v}$μ transitions. Differences between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations could be a sign of physics beyond the Standard Model, including non-standard matter interactions or the violation of CPT symmetry. These measurements leverage the sign-selecting capabilities of the magnetized steel-scintillator MINOS detectors to analyze antineutrinos from the NuMI beam, both when it is in neutrino-mode and when it is in antineutrino-mode. Antineutrino oscillations are observed at |Δ$\bar{m}$atm 2| = (3.36-0.40+0.46(stat) ± 0.06(syst)) x 10-3 eV2 and sin2(2$\bar{θ}$23) = 0.860-0.12+0.11(stat) ± 0.01(syst). The oscillation parameters measured for antineutrinos and those measured by MINOS for neutrinos differ by a large enough margin that the chance of obtaining two values as discrepant as those observed is only 2%, assuming the two measurements arise from the same underlying mechanism, with the same parameter values. No evidence is seen for neutrino-to-antineutrino transitions.

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• → Other neutrino oscillation measurements(2013)
• → Long-baseline accelerator neutrino experiments(2011)