MINOS Results, Progress and Future Prospects

TL;DR

The MINOS experiment has measured neutrino oscillation parameters, neutrino velocity, and advanced analysis of neutral current events, providing key insights into neutrino properties and future research directions.

Contribution

This paper reports new precise measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters, neutrino velocity, and progress in neutral current event analysis from the MINOS experiment.

Findings

Measured |m^2_{32}|=2.74^{+0.44}_{-0.26} imes 10^{-3} eV^2

Neutrino velocity deviation (v-c)/c = (5.1 \u00b1 2.9) imes 10^{-5}

Progress in neutral current event analysis and future experimental goals.

Abstract

The MINOS long baseline experiment has been collecting neutrino beam data since March 2005 and has accumulated 3 x 10^{20} protons-on-target (POT) to date. MINOS uses Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beam which is measured by two steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters, one at Fermilab and the other 735 km downstream, in northern Minnesota. By observing the oscillatory structure in the neutrino energy spectrum, MINOS can precisely measure the neutrino oscillation parameters in the atmospheric sector. From analysis of the first year of data, corresponding to 1.27 x 10^{20} POT, these parameters were determined to be |\Delta m^2_{32}|=2.74^{+0.44}_{-0.26} x 10^{-3} eV^2 and sin^2(2\theta_{23})>0.87 (68% C.L.). MINOS is able to measure the neutrino velocity by comparing the arrival times of the neutrino beam in its two detectors. Using a total of 473 Far Detector events, (v-c)/c = (5.1 +/- 2.9) x 10^{-5} (68% C.L.) was measured. In addition, we report recent progress in the analysis of neutral current events and give an outline of experimental goals for the future.