Search for Non-standard Interactions with the MINOS Experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of neutrino and antineutrino oscillations using the MINOS experiment and uses these results to constrain possible non-standard interactions during neutrino propagation through Earth's crust.

Contribution

The study provides the most precise measurements of neutrino and antineutrino oscillation parameters and sets new limits on non-standard matter interactions affecting neutrino propagation.

Findings

Measured neutrino mass splitting as 2.32×10^{-3} eV^2

Measured antineutrino mass splitting as 3.36×10^{-3} eV^2

Constrained non-standard matter interactions during Earth's crust traversal

Abstract

MINOS searches for neutrino oscillations using the disappearance of muon neutrinos between two detectors, over a baseline of 735 km. We recently reported the most precise measurement of neutrino oscillations in the atmospheric sector and the first tagged measurement of antineutrino oscillations. The neutrino mass splitting and mixing angle are measured to be $|\Delta m^{2}| = 2.32_{-0.08}^{+0.12} \times 10^{-3}\,eV^{2}$ and $\sin^{2}2\theta > 0.90$ (90% C.L.) for an exposure of $7.25 \times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target (PoT). Antineutrino oscillation parameters are measured as $\Delta \bar{m}^{2}=(3.36^{+0.46}_{-0.40}\textrm{(stat.)}\pm0.06\textrm{(syst.)})\times 10^{-3}\,eV^{2}$ and $\sin^{2}(2\bar{\theta})=0.86^{+0.11}_{-0.12}\textrm{(stat.)}\pm0.01\textrm{(syst.)}$ with an exposure of $1.7 \times 10^{20}$ PoT in NuMI antineutrino running mode. We use the apparent difference in neutrino and antineutrino oscillation parameters to constrain non-standard matter interactions which could occur during propagation through the Earth's crust to the far detector.