Browsing by Subject "Neutrino oscillations"

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    Studying neutrino oscillations using quasi-elastic events in MINOS.
    (2008-02) Kumaratunga, Sujeewa Terasita
    MINOS (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search), is a long baseline neutrino experiment designed to search for neutrino oscillations using two detectors at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, IL (Near Detector) and Soudan, MN (Far Detector). It will study ν μ [arrow right] ν τ oscillations and make a measurement on the oscillation parameters, [Special characters omitted.] and [Special characters omitted.] , via a ν μ beam made at Fermilab. Charge current neutrino interactions in the MINOS detectors are of three types: quasi-elastic scattering (QEL), resonance scattering (RES) and deep inelastic scattering (DIS). Of these, quasi-elastic scattering leaves the cleanest signal with just one μ and one proton in the final state, thus rendering the reconstruction of the neutrino energy more accurate. This thesis will outline a method to separate QEL events from the others in the two detectors and perform a calculation of [Special characters omitted.] and [Special characters omitted.] using those events. The period under consideration was May 2005 to February 2006. The number of observed quasi-elastic events with energies below 10 GeV was 29, where the expected number was 60 ± 3. A fit to the energy distributions of these events gives [Special characters omitted.] and [Special characters omitted.] .