Final Results of the OPERA Experiment on ντ Appearance in the CNGS Neutrino Beam

(OPERA Collaboration) Agafonova, N.; Alexandrov, A.; Anokhina, A.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Ariga, T.; Bertolin, A.; Bozza, C.; Brugnera, R.; Buonaura, A.; Buontempo, S.; Chernyavskiy, M.; Chukanov, A.; Consiglio, L.; D'Ambrosio, N.; De Lellis, G.; De Serio, M.; Sanchez, P. del Amo; Di Crescenzo, A.; Di Ferdinando, D.; Di Marco, N.; Dmitrievsky, S.; Dracos, M.; Duchesneau, D.; Dusini, S.; Dzhatdoev, T.; Ebert, J.; Ereditato, A.; Favier, J.; Fini, R. A.; Fornari, F.; Fukuda, T.; Galati, G.; Garfagnini, A.; Gentile, V; Goldberg, J.; Gorbunov, S.; Gornushkin, Y.; Grella, G.; Guler, A. M.; Gustavino, C.; Hagner, C.; Hara, T.; Hayakawa, T.; Hollnagel, A.; Ishiguro, K.; Iuliano, A.; Jakovcic, K.; Jollet, C.; Kamiscioglu, C.; Kamiscioglu, M.; Kim, S. H.; Kitagawa, N.; Klicek, B.; Kodama, K.; Komatsu, M.; Kose, U.; Kreslo, I; Laudisio, F.; Lauria, A.; Ljubicic, A.; Longhin, A.; Loverre, P.; Malenica, M.; Malgin, A.; Mandrioli, G.; Matsuo, T.; Matveev, V; Mauri, N.; Medinaceli, E.; Meregaglia, A.; Mikado, S.; Miyanishi, M.; Mizutani, F.; Monacelli, P.; Montesi, M. C.; Morishima, K.; Muciaccia, M. T.; Naganawa, N.; Naka, T.; Nakamura, M.; Nakano, T.; Niwa, K.; Ogawa, S.; Okateva, N.; Olchevsky, A.; Ozaki, K.; Paoloni, A.; Paparella, L.; Park, B. D.; Pasqualini, L.; Pastore, A.; Patrizii, L.; Pessard, H.; Pistillo, C.; Podgrudkov, D.; Polukhina, N.; Pozzato, M.; Pupilli, F.; Roda, M.; Roganova, T.; Rokujo, H.; Rosa, G.; Ryazhskaya, O.; Sadovsky, A.; Sato, O.; Schembri, A.; Shakiryanova, I; Shchedrina, T.; Shibayama, E.; Shibuya, H.; Shiraishi, T.; Simone, S.; Sirignano, C.; Sirri, G.; Sotnikov, A.; Spinetti, M.; Stanco, L.; Starkov, N.; Stellacci, S. M.; Stipcevic, M.; Strolin, P.; Takahashi, S.; Tenti, M.; Terranova, F.; Tioukov, V; Tufanli, S.; Ustyuzhanin, A.; Vasina, S.; Vilain, P.; Voevodina, E.; Votano, L.; Vuilleumier, J. L.; Wilquet, G.; Wonsak, B.; Yoon, C. S. (2018) Final Results of the OPERA Experiment on ντ Appearance in the CNGS Neutrino Beam. Physical Review Letters, 120 . ISSN 0031-9007

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Abstract

The OPERA experiment was designed to study νμ→ντ oscillations in the appearance mode in the CERN to Gran Sasso Neutrino beam (CNGS). In this Letter, we report the final analysis of the full data sample collected between 2008 and 2012, corresponding to 17.97×10^19 protons on target. Selection criteria looser than in previous analyses have produced ten ντ candidate events, thus reducing the statistical uncertainty in the measurement of the oscillation parameters and of ντ properties. A multivariate approach for event identification has been applied to the candidate events and the discovery of ντ appearance is confirmed with an improved significance level of 6.1σ. |Δm_(23)^2| has been measured, in appearance mode, with an accuracy of 20%. The measurement of the ντ charged-current cross section, for the first time with a negligible contamination from ¯ντ, and the first direct evidence for the ντ lepton number are also reported.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	We warmly thank CERN for the successful operation of the CNGS facility and INFN for the continuous support given by hosting the experiment in its LNGS laboratory. Funding is gratefully acknowledged from national agencies and institutions supporting us, namely, Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS and Institut Interuniversitaire des Sciences Nucleaires for Belgium; Ministry of Science Education and Sport (MoSES) for Croatia; CNRS and Institut national de physique nucleaire et de physique des particules (IN2P3) for France; BMBF for Germany; INFN for Italy; JSPS, MEXT, the QFPU-Global COE program of Nagoya University, and Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan for Japan; SNF, the University of Bern and ETH Zurich for Switzerland; the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 12-02-12142 ofim), the Programs of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Neutrino Physics and Experimental and Theoretical Researches of Fundamental Interactions), and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for Russia, the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Grant No. NRF-2018R1A2B2007757) for Korea; and TUBITAK, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey for Turkey (Grant No. 108T324).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	OPERA detector; neutrino oscillation; tau leptons
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics
Divisions:	Division of Experimental Physics
Depositing User:	Budimir Kliček
Date Deposited:	03 Dec 2019 14:26
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/5209
DOI:	10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.211801

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