Measurement of neutrino oscillations with the MINOS detectors in the NuMI beam

• Published in: Physical review letters 2008-09, Vol.101 (13), p.131802-131802, Article 131802
• Main Authors: Adamson, P, Andreopoulos, C, Arms, K E, Armstrong, R, Auty, D J, Ayres, D S, Baller, B, Barnes, Jr, P D, Barr, G, Barrett, W L, Becker, B R, Belias, A, Bernstein, R H, Bhattacharya, D, Bishai, M, Blake, A, Bock, G J, Boehm, J, Boehnlein, D J, Bogert, D, Bower, C, Buckley-Geer, E, Cavanaugh, S, Chapman, J D, Cherdack, D, Childress, S, Choudhary, B C, Cobb, J H, Coleman, S J, Culling, A J, de Jong, J K, Dierckxsens, M, Diwan, M V, Dorman, M, Dytman, S A, Escobar, C O, Evans, J J, Harris, E Falk, Feldman, G J, Frohne, M V, Gallagher, H R, Godley, A, Goodman, M C, Gouffon, P, Gran, R, Grashorn, E W, Grossman, N, Grzelak, K, Habig, A, Harris, D, Harris, P G, Hartnell, J, Hatcher, R, Heller, K, Himmel, A, Holin, A, Hylen, J, Irwin, G M, Ishitsuka, M, Jaffe, D E, James, C, Jensen, D, Kafka, T, Kasahara, S M S, Kim, J J, Kim, M S, Koizumi, G, Kopp, S, Kordosky, M, Koskinen, D J, Kotelnikov, S K, Kreymer, A, Kumaratunga, S, Lang, K, Ling, J, Litchfield, P J, Litchfield, R P, Loiacono, L, Lucas, P, Ma, J, Mann, W A, Marchionni, A, Marshak, M L, Marshall, J S, Mayer, N, McGowan, A M, Meier, J R, Merzon, G I, Messier, M D, Metelko, C J, Michael, D G, Miller, J L, Miller, W H, Mishra, S R, Moore, C D, Morfín, J, Mualem, L, Mufson, S, Murgia, S, Musser, J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrophysics; FERMILAB; FLAVOR MODEL; High Energy Physics - Experiment; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic; MUON NEUTRINOS; NEUTRINO OSCILLATION; PARTICLE DECAY; Physics; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; QUANTUM DECOHERENCE; QUANTUM MECHANICS; Sciences of the Universe; WEINBERG ANGLE
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.131802

This Letter reports new results from the MINOS experiment based on a two-year exposure to muon neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. Our data are consistent with quantum-mechanical oscillations of neutrino flavor with mass splitting |Deltam2| = (2.43+/-0.13) x 10(-3) eV2 (68% C.L.) and mixing angle sin2(2theta) > 0.90 (90% C.L.). Our data disfavor two alternative explanations for the disappearance of neutrinos in flight: namely, neutrino decays into lighter particles and quantum decoherence of neutrinos, at the 3.7 and 5.7 standard-deviation levels, respectively.