Measurements of atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos in the MINOS Far Detector
Creators: name: MINOS Collaboration
name: Adamson, P.
name: Backhouse, C.
name: Barr, G.
name: Bishai, M.
name: Blake, A. S. T.
name: Bock, G. J.
name: Boehnlein, D. J.
name: Bogert, D.
name: Cao, S. V.
name: Chapman, J. D.
name: Childress, S.
name: Coelho, J. A. B.
name: Corwin, L.
name: Cronin-Hennessy, D.
name: Danko, I. Z.
name: de Jong, J. K.
name: Devenish, N. E.
name: Diwan, M. V.
name: Escobar, C. O.
name: Evans, J. J.
name: Falk, E.
name: Feldman, G. J.
name: Frohne, M. V.
name: Gallagher, H. R.
name: Gomes, R. A.
name: Goodman, M. C.
name: Gouffon, P.
name: Graf, N.
name: Gran, R.
name: Grzelak, K.
name: Habig, A.
name: Hartnell, J.
name: Hatcher, R.
name: Himmel, A.
name: Holin, A.
name: Hylen, J.
name: Irwin, G. M.
name: Isvan, Z.
name: Jaffe, D. E.
name: James, C.
name: Jensen, D.
name: Kafka, T.
name: Kasahara, S. M. S.
name: Koizumi, G.
name: Kopp, S.
name: Kordosky, M.
name: Kreymer, A.
name: Lang, K.
name: Ling, J.
name: Litchfield, P. J.
name: Loiacono, L.
name: Lucas, P.
name: Mann, W. A.
name: Marshak, M. L.
name: Mathis, M.
name: Mayer, N.
name: Medeiros, M. M.
name: Mehdiyev, R.
name: Meier, J. R.
name: Messier, M. D.
name: Miller, W. H.
name: Mishra, S. R.
name: Mitchell, J.
name: Moore, C. D.
name: Mualem, L.
name: Mufson, S.
name: Musser, J.
name: Naples, D.
name: Nelson, J. K.
name: Newman, H. B.
name: Nichol, R. J.
name: Nowak, J. A.
name: Oliver, W. P.
name: Orchanian, M.
name: Pahlka, R. B.
name: Paley, J.
name: Patterson, R. B.
name: Pawloski, G.
name: Phan-Budd, S.
name: Plunkett, R. K.
name: Qiu, X.
name: Radovic, A.
name: Ratchford, J.
name: Rebel, B.
name: Rosenfeld, C.
name: Rubin, H. A.
name: Sanchez, M. C.
name: Schneps, J.
name: Schreckenberger, A.
name: Schreiner, P.
name: Sharma, R.
name: Sousa, A.
name: Speakman, B.
name: Strait, M.
name: Tagg, N.
name: Talaga, R. L.
name: Thomas, J.
name: Thomson, M. A.
name: Toner, R.
name: Torretta, D.
name: Tzanakos, G.
name: Urheim, J.
name: Vahle, P.
name: Viren, B.
name: Walding, J. J.
name: Weber, A.
name: Webb, R. C.
name: White, C.
name: Whitehead, L.
name: Wojcicki, S. G.
name: Zhang, K.
name: Zwaska, R.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: This paper reports measurements of atmospheric neutrino and antineutrino interactions in the MINOS Far Detector, based on 2553 live-days (37.9 kton-years) of data. A total of 2072 candidate events are observed. These are separated into 905 contained-vertex muons and 466 neutrino-induced rock-muons, both produced by charged-current $ν_μ$ and $\barν_μ$ interactions, and 701 contained-vertex showers, composed mainly of charged-current $ν_{e}$ and $\barν_{e}$ interactions and neutral-current interactions. The curvature of muon tracks in the magnetic field of the MINOS Far Detector is used to select separate samples of $ν_μ$ and $\barν_μ$ events. The observed ratio of $\barν_μ$ to $ν_μ$ events is compared with the Monte Carlo simulation, giving a double ratio of $R^{data}_{\barν/ν}/R^{MC}_{\barν/ν} = 1.03 \pm 0.08 (stat.) \pm 0.08 (syst.)$. The $ν_μ$ and $\barν_μ$ data are separated into bins of $L/E$ resolution, based on the reconstructed energy and direction of each event, and a maximum likelihood fit to the observed $L/E$ distributions is used to determine the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters. This fit returns 90% confidence limits of $|Δm^{2}| = (1.9 \pm 0.4) \times 10^{-3} eV^{2}$ and $sin^{2} 2θ&gt; 0.86$. The fit is extended to incorporate separate $ν_μ$ and $\barν_μ$ oscillation parameters, returning 90% confidence limits of $|Δm^{2}|-|Δ\bar{m}^{2}| = 0.6^{+2.4}_{-0.8} \times 10^{-3} eV^{2}$ on the difference between the squared-mass splittings for neutrinos and antineutrinos.
description: 22 pages, 19 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D