The OPERA experiment was designed to search for ν_{μ}→ν_{τ} oscillations in appearance mode, i.e., by detecting the τ leptons produced in charged current ν_{τ} interactions. The experiment took data ...from 2008 to 2012 in the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso beam. The observation of the ν_{μ}→ν_{τ} appearance, achieved with four candidate events in a subsample of the data, was previously reported. In this Letter, a fifth ν_{τ} candidate event, found in an enlarged data sample, is described. Together with a further reduction of the expected background, the candidate events detected so far allow us to assess the discovery of ν_{μ}→ν_{τ} oscillations in appearance mode with a significance larger than 5σ.
The OPERA experiment has conclusively observed the appearance of tau neutrinos in the muon neutrino CNGS beam. Exploiting the OPERA detector capabilities, it was possible to isolate high purity ...samples of νe, νμ and ντ charged current weak neutrino interactions, as well as neutral current weak interactions. In this paper, the full dataset is used for the first time to test the three-flavor neutrino oscillation model and to derive constraints on the existence of a light sterile neutrino within the framework of the 3+1 neutrino model. For the first time, tau and electron neutrino appearance channels are jointly used to test the sterile neutrino hypothesis. A significant fraction of the sterile neutrino parameter space allowed by LSND and MiniBooNE experiments is excluded at 90% C.L. In particular, the best-fit values obtained by MiniBooNE combining neutrino and antineutrino data are excluded at 3.3σ significance.
A
bstract
The OPERA experiment has discovered the tau neutrino appearance in the CNGS muon neutrino beam, in agreement with the 3 neutrino flavour oscillation hypothesis. The OPERA neutrino ...interaction target, made of Emulsion Cloud Chambers, was particularly efficient in the reconstruction of electromagnetic showers. Moreover, thanks to the very high granularity of the emulsion films, showers induced by electrons can be distinguished from those induced by
π
0
s, thus allowing the detection of charged current interactions of electron neutrinos. In this paper the results of the search for electron neutrino events using the full dataset are reported. An improved method for the electron neutrino energy estimation is exploited. Data are compatible with the 3 neutrino flavour mixing model expectations and are used to set limits on the oscillation parameters of the 3+1 neutrino mixing model, in which an additional mass eigenstate
m
4
is introduced. At high Δ
m
41
2
(≳0.1 eV
2
), an upper limit on sin
2
2
θ
μe
is set to 0.021 at 90% C.L. and Δ
m
41
2
≳ 4 × 10
− 3
eV
2
is excluded for maximal mixing in appearance mode.
The Scattering and Neutrino Detector at the LHC (SND@LHC) started taking data at the beginning of Run 3 of the LHC. The experiment is designed to perform measurements with neutrinos produced in ...proton-proton collisions at the LHC in an energy range between 100 GeV and 1 TeV. It covers a previously unexplored pseudo-rapidity range of
7.2
<
η
<
8.4
. The detector is located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point in the TI18 tunnel. It comprises a veto system, a target consisting of tungsten plates interleaved with nuclear emulsion and scintillating fiber (SciFi) trackers, followed by a muon detector (UpStream, US and DownStream, DS). In this article we report the measurement of the muon flux in three subdetectors: the emulsion, the SciFi trackers and the DownStream Muon detector. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through an 18
×
18 cm
2
area in the emulsion is:
1.5
±
0.1
(
stat
)
×
10
4
fb/cm
2
.
The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 31
×
31 cm
2
area in the centre of the SciFi is:
2.06
±
0.01
(
stat
)
±
0.12
(
sys
)
×
10
4
fb/cm
2
The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 52
×
52 cm
2
area in the centre of the downstream muon system is:
2.35
±
0.01
(
stat
)
±
0.10
(
sys
)
×
10
4
fb/cm
2
The total relative uncertainty of the measurements by the electronic detectors is 6
%
for the SciFi and 4
%
for the DS measurement. The Monte Carlo simulation prediction of these fluxes is 20–25
%
lower than the measured values.
An event topology with two secondary vertices compatible with the decay of short-lived particles was found in the analysis of neutrino interactions in the OPERA target. The observed topology is ...compatible with tau neutrino charged current (CC) interactions with charm production and neutrino neutral current (NC) interactions with
c
c
¯
pair production. However, other processes can mimic this topology. A dedicated analysis was implemented to identify the underlying process. A Monte Carlo simulation was developed and complementary procedures were introduced in the kinematic reconstruction. A multivariate analysis technique was used to achieve an optimal separation of signal from background. Most likely, this event is a
ν
τ
CC interaction with charm production, the tau and charm particle decaying into 1 prong and 2 prongs, respectively. The significance of this observation is evaluated.
The OPERA experiment, designed to perform the first observation of
ν
μ
→
ν
τ
oscillations in appearance mode through the detection of the
τ
leptons produced in
ν
τ
charged current interactions, has ...collected data from 2008 to 2012. In the present paper, the procedure developed to detect
τ
particle decays, occurring over distances of the order of
1
mm
from the neutrino interaction point, is described in detail and applied to the search for charmed hadrons, showing similar decay topologies as the
τ
lepton. In the analysed sample, 50 charm decay candidate events are observed while
54
±
4
are expected, proving that the detector performance and the analysis chain applied to neutrino events are well reproduced by the OPERA simulation and thus validating the methods for
ν
τ
appearance detection.
The OPERA detector, designed to search for v.sub.μ right arrow v.sub.τ oscillations in the CNGS beam, is located in the underground Gran Sasso laboratory, a privileged location to study TeV-scale ...cosmic rays. For the analysis here presented, the detector was used to measure the atmospheric muon charge ratio in the TeV region. OPERA collected charge-separated cosmic ray data between 2008 and 2012. More than 3 million atmospheric muon events were detected and reconstructed, among which about 110000 multiple muon bundles. The charge ratio R.sub.μ = N.sub.μ + /N.sub.μ- was measured separately for single and for multiple muon events. The analysis exploited the inversion of the magnet polarity which was performed on purpose during the 2012 Run. The combination of the two data sets with opposite magnet polarities allowed minimizing systematic uncertainties and reaching an accurate determination of the muon charge ratio. Data were fitted to obtain relevant parameters on the composition of primary cosmic rays and the associated kaon production in the forward fragmentation region. In the surface energy range 1-20 TeV investigated by OPERA, R.sub.μ is well described by a parametric model including only pion and kaon contributions to the muon flux, showing no significant contribution of the prompt component. The energy independence supports the validity of Feynman scaling in the fragmentation region up to 200 TeV/nucleon primary energy.
The OPERA experiment was designed to search for
ν
μ
→
ν
τ
oscillations in appearance mode through the direct observation of tau neutrinos in the CNGS neutrino beam. In this paper, we report a study ...of the multiplicity of charged particles produced in charged-current neutrino interactions in lead. We present charged hadron average multiplicities, their dispersion and investigate the KNO scaling in different kinematical regions. The results are presented in detail in the form of tables that can be used in the validation of Monte Carlo generators of neutrino–lead interactions.
A
bstract
The OPERA experiment, exposed to the CERN to Gran Sasso
ν
μ
beam, collected data from 2008 to 2012. Four oscillated
ν
τ
Charged Current interaction candidates have been detected in ...appearance mode, which are consistent with
ν
μ
→ ν
τ
oscillations at the atmospheric Δ
m
2
within the “standard” three-neutrino framework. In this paper, the OPERA
ν
τ
appearance results are used to derive limits on the mixing parameters of a massive sterile neutrino.
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