The detection of neutrino interactions in the emulsion/lead target of the OPERA experiment

TL;DR

The paper describes the OPERA experiment's setup, data collection, and analysis methods for detecting neutrino interactions and studying neutrino oscillations over a long baseline from CERN to LNGS.

Contribution

It presents the design, implementation, and initial data analysis of the OPERA detector for neutrino oscillation detection in a long-baseline experiment.

Findings

Successful collection of neutrino interaction data in 2007-2008

Development of reconstruction and analysis procedures for neutrino events

Operational status of the detector and facilities for emulsion handling

Abstract

The OPERA neutrino detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in appearance mode through the study of $\nu_\mu\to\nu_\tau$ oscillations. The apparatus consists of an emulsion/lead target complemented by electronic detectors and it is placed in the high energy long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. Runs with CNGS neutrinos were successfully carried out in 2007 and 2008 with the detector fully operational with its related facilities for the emulsion handling and analysis. After a brief description of the beam and of the experimental setup we report on the collection, reconstruction and analysis procedures of first samples of neutrino interaction events.