First Measurement of Electron Neutrino Appearance in NOvA

P Adamson; C Ader; M Andrews; N Anfimov; I Anghel; K Arms; E Arrieta-Diaz; A Aurisano; D S Ayres; C Backhouse; M Baird; B A Bambah; K Bays; R Bernstein; M Betancourt; V Bhatnagar; B Bhuyan; J Bian; K Biery; T Blackburn; V Bocean; D Bogert; A Bolshakova; M Bowden; C Bower; D Broemmelsiek; C Bromberg; G Brunetti; X Bu; A Butkevich; D Capista; E Catano-Mur; T R Chase; S Childress; B C Choudhary; B Chowdhury; T E Coan; J A B Coelho; M Colo; J Cooper; L Corwin; D Cronin-Hennessy; A Cunningham; G S Davies; J P Davies; M Del Tutto; P F Derwent; K N Deepthi; D Demuth; S Desai; G Deuerling; A Devan; J Dey; R Dharmapalan; P Ding; S Dixon; Z Djurcic; E C Dukes; H Duyang; R Ehrlich; G J Feldman; N Felt; E J Fenyves; E Flumerfelt; S Foulkes; M J Frank; W Freeman; M Gabrielyan; H R Gallagher; M Gebhard; T Ghosh; W Gilbert; A Giri; S Goadhouse; R A Gomes; L Goodenough; M C Goodman; V Grichine; N Grossman; R Group; J Grudzinski; V Guarino; B Guo; A Habig; T Handler; J Hartnell; R Hatcher; A Hatzikoutelis; K Heller; C Howcroft; J Huang; X Huang; J Hylen; M Ishitsuka; F Jediny; C Jensen; D Jensen; C Johnson; H Jostlein; G K Kafka; Y Kamyshkov; S M S Kasahara; S Kasetti; K Kephart; G Koizumi; S Kotelnikov; I Kourbanis; Z Krahn; V Kravtsov; A Kreymer; Ch Kulenberg; A Kumar; T Kutnink; R Kwarciancy; J Kwong; K Lang; A Lee; W M Lee; K Lee; S Lein; J Liu; M Lokajicek; J Lozier; Q Lu; P Lucas; S Luchuk; P Lukens; G Lukhanin; S Magill; K Maan; W A Mann; M L Marshak; M Martens; J Martincik; P Mason; K Matera; M Mathis; V Matveev; N Mayer; E McCluskey; R Mehdiyev; H Merritt; M D Messier; H Meyer; T Miao; D Michael; S P Mikheyev; W H Miller; S R Mishra; R Mohanta; A Moren; L Mualem; M Muether; S Mufson; J Musser; H B Newman; J K Nelson; E Niner; A Norman; J Nowak; Y Oksuzian; A Olshevskiy; J Oliver; T Olson; J Paley; P Pandey; A Para; R B Patterson; G Pawloski; N Pearson; D Perevalov; D Pershey; E Peterson; R Petti; S Phan-Budd; L Piccoli; A Pla-Dalmau; R K Plunkett; R Poling; B Potukuchi; F Psihas; D Pushka; X Qiu; N Raddatz; A Radovic; R A Rameika; R Ray; B Rebel; R Rechenmacher; B Reed; R Reilly; D Rocco; D Rodkin; K Ruddick; R Rusack; V Ryabov; K Sachdev; S Sahijpal; H Sahoo; O Samoylov; M C Sanchez; N Saoulidou; P Schlabach; J Schneps; R Schroeter; J Sepulveda-Quiroz; P Shanahan; B Sherwood; A Sheshukov; J Singh; V Singh; A Smith; D Smith; J Smolik; N Solomey; A Sotnikov; A Sousa; K Soustruznik; Y Stenkin; M Strait; L Suter; R L Talaga; M C Tamsett; S Tariq; P Tas; R J Tesarek; R B Thayyullathil; K Thomsen; X Tian; S C Tognini; R Toner; J Trevor; G Tzanakos; J Urheim; P Vahle; L Valerio; L Vinton; T Vrba; A V Waldron; B Wang; Z Wang; A Weber; A Wehmann; D Whittington; N Wilcer; R Wildberger; D Wildman; K Williams; S G Wojcicki; K Wood; M Xiao; T Xin; N Yadav; S Yang; S Zadorozhnyy; J Zalesak; B Zamorano; A Zhao; J Zirnstein; R Zwaska; NOvA Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.151806

First Measurement of Electron Neutrino Appearance in NOvA

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Apr 15;116(15):151806. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.151806. Epub 2016 Apr 13.

Authors

P Adamson¹, C Ader¹, M Andrews¹, N Anfimov², I Anghel^{3

4}, K Arms⁵, E Arrieta-Diaz⁶, A Aurisano⁷, D S Ayres³, C Backhouse⁸, M Baird⁹, B A Bambah¹⁰, K Bays⁸, R Bernstein¹, M Betancourt⁵, V Bhatnagar¹¹, B Bhuyan¹², J Bian⁵, K Biery¹, T Blackburn¹³, V Bocean¹, D Bogert¹, A Bolshakova², M Bowden¹, C Bower⁹, D Broemmelsiek¹, C Bromberg¹⁴, G Brunetti¹, X Bu¹, A Butkevich¹⁵, D Capista¹, E Catano-Mur⁴, T R Chase⁵, S Childress¹, B C Choudhary¹⁶, B Chowdhury¹⁷, T E Coan⁶, J A B Coelho¹⁸, M Colo¹⁹, J Cooper¹, L Corwin²⁰, D Cronin-Hennessy⁵, A Cunningham²¹, G S Davies⁹, J P Davies¹³, M Del Tutto¹, P F Derwent¹, K N Deepthi¹⁰, D Demuth²², S Desai⁵, G Deuerling¹, A Devan¹⁹, J Dey¹, R Dharmapalan³, P Ding¹, S Dixon¹, Z Djurcic³, E C Dukes²³, H Duyang¹⁷, R Ehrlich²³, G J Feldman²⁴, N Felt²⁴, E J Fenyves²¹, E Flumerfelt²⁵, S Foulkes¹, M J Frank²³, W Freeman¹, M Gabrielyan⁵, H R Gallagher¹⁸, M Gebhard⁹, T Ghosh²⁶, W Gilbert⁵, A Giri²⁷, S Goadhouse²³, R A Gomes²⁶, L Goodenough³, M C Goodman³, V Grichine²⁸, N Grossman¹, R Group²³, J Grudzinski³, V Guarino³, B Guo¹⁷, A Habig²⁹, T Handler²⁵, J Hartnell¹³, R Hatcher¹, A Hatzikoutelis²⁵, K Heller⁵, C Howcroft⁸, J Huang³⁰, X Huang³, J Hylen¹, M Ishitsuka⁹, F Jediny³¹, C Jensen¹, D Jensen¹, C Johnson⁹, H Jostlein¹, G K Kafka²⁴, Y Kamyshkov²⁵, S M S Kasahara⁵, S Kasetti¹⁰, K Kephart¹, G Koizumi¹, S Kotelnikov²⁸, I Kourbanis¹, Z Krahn⁵, V Kravtsov⁶, A Kreymer¹, Ch Kulenberg², A Kumar¹¹, T Kutnink⁴, R Kwarciancy¹, J Kwong⁵, K Lang³⁰, A Lee¹, W M Lee¹, K Lee³², S Lein⁵, J Liu¹⁹, M Lokajicek³³, J Lozier⁸, Q Lu¹, P Lucas¹, S Luchuk¹⁵, P Lukens¹, G Lukhanin¹, S Magill³, K Maan¹¹, W A Mann¹⁸, M L Marshak⁵, M Martens¹, J Martincik³¹, P Mason²⁵, K Matera¹, M Mathis¹⁹, V Matveev¹⁵, N Mayer¹⁸, E McCluskey¹, R Mehdiyev³⁰, H Merritt⁹, M D Messier⁹, H Meyer³⁴, T Miao¹, D Michael⁸, S P Mikheyev¹⁵, W H Miller⁵, S R Mishra¹⁷, R Mohanta¹⁰, A Moren²⁹, L Mualem⁸, M Muether³⁴, S Mufson⁹, J Musser⁹, H B Newman⁸, J K Nelson¹⁹, E Niner⁹, A Norman¹, J Nowak⁵, Y Oksuzian²³, A Olshevskiy², J Oliver²⁴, T Olson¹⁸, J Paley¹, P Pandey¹⁶, A Para¹, R B Patterson⁸, G Pawloski⁵, N Pearson⁵, D Perevalov¹, D Pershey⁸, E Peterson⁵, R Petti¹⁷, S Phan-Budd³⁵, L Piccoli¹, A Pla-Dalmau¹, R K Plunkett¹, R Poling⁵, B Potukuchi³⁶, F Psihas⁹, D Pushka¹, X Qiu³⁷, N Raddatz⁵, A Radovic¹⁹, R A Rameika¹, R Ray¹, B Rebel¹, R Rechenmacher¹, B Reed²⁰, R Reilly¹, D Rocco⁵, D Rodkin¹⁵, K Ruddick⁵, R Rusack⁵, V Ryabov²⁸, K Sachdev⁵, S Sahijpal¹¹, H Sahoo³, O Samoylov², M C Sanchez^{3

4}, N Saoulidou¹, P Schlabach¹, J Schneps¹⁸, R Schroeter²⁴, J Sepulveda-Quiroz^{3

4}, P Shanahan¹, B Sherwood⁵, A Sheshukov², J Singh¹¹, V Singh³⁸, A Smith⁵, D Smith²⁰, J Smolik³¹, N Solomey³⁴, A Sotnikov², A Sousa⁷, K Soustruznik³⁹, Y Stenkin¹⁵, M Strait⁵, L Suter³, R L Talaga³, M C Tamsett¹³, S Tariq¹, P Tas³⁹, R J Tesarek¹, R B Thayyullathil⁴⁰, K Thomsen²⁹, X Tian¹⁷, S C Tognini²⁶, R Toner²⁴, J Trevor⁸, G Tzanakos⁴¹, J Urheim⁹, P Vahle¹⁹, L Valerio¹, L Vinton¹³, T Vrba³¹, A V Waldron¹³, B Wang⁶, Z Wang²³, A Weber^{42

43}, A Wehmann¹, D Whittington⁹, N Wilcer¹, R Wildberger⁵, D Wildman¹, K Williams¹, S G Wojcicki³⁷, K Wood³, M Xiao¹, T Xin⁴, N Yadav¹², S Yang⁷, S Zadorozhnyy¹⁵, J Zalesak³³, B Zamorano¹³, A Zhao³, J Zirnstein⁵, R Zwaska¹; NOvA Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA.
² Joint Institute for Nuclear Research Joliot-Curie, 6 Dubna, Moscow Region 141980, Russia.
³ Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
⁵ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA.
⁸ California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
⁹ Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
¹⁰ School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500 046, India.
¹¹ Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh 106 014, India.
¹² Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India.
¹³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom.
¹⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
¹⁵ Institute for Nuclear Research of Russian Academy of Sciences, 7a 60th October Anniversary Prospect, Moscow 117312, Russia.
¹⁶ Department of Physics & Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India.
¹⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Physics and Astonomy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Physics, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA.
²⁰ South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701, USA.
²¹ Physics Department, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Road, Richardson, Texas 75083-0688, USA.
²² Math, Science and Technology Department, University of Minnesota-Crookston, Crookston, Minnesota 56716, USA.
²³ Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA.
²⁴ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
²⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, 1408 Circle Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
²⁶ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiánia, Goiás 74690-900, Brazil.
²⁷ Department of Physics, IIT Hyderabad, Hyderabad 502 205, India.
²⁸ Nuclear Physics Department, Lebedev Physical Institute, Leninsky Prospect 53, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
²⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA.
³⁰ Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C1600, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
³¹ Czech Technical University in Prague, Brehova 7, 115 19 Prague 1, Czech Republic.
³² Physics and Astronomy Department, UCLA, Box 951547, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA.
³³ Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
³⁴ Physics Division, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmout Street, Wichita, Kansas 67220, USA.
³⁵ Department of Physics, Winona State University, P.O. Box 5838, Winona, Minnesota 55987, USA.
³⁶ Department of Physics and Electronics, University of Jammu, Jammu Tawi, 180 006 Jammu & Kashmir, India.
³⁷ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
³⁸ Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, India.
³⁹ Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Prague, Czech Republic.
⁴⁰ Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi 682 022, India.
⁴¹ Department of Physics, University of Athens, Athens 15771, Greece.
⁴² Subdepartment of Particle Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom.
⁴³ Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.

PMID: 27127961
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.151806

Abstract

We report results from the first search for ν_{μ}→ν_{e} transitions by the NOvA experiment. In an exposure equivalent to 2.74×10^{20} protons on target in the upgraded NuMI beam at Fermilab, we observe 6 events in the Far Detector, compared to a background expectation of 0.99±0.11(syst) events based on the Near Detector measurement. A secondary analysis observes 11 events with a background of 1.07±0.14(syst). The 3.3σ excess of events observed in the primary analysis disfavors 0.1π<δ_{CP}<0.5π in the inverted mass hierarchy at the 90% C.L.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.