Measurement of the neutrino oscillation parameters by NOvA
Abstract
Using a beam made (mainly) by muon neutrinos traveling through the earth, the NOvA Experiment looks for the appearance of electron neutrinos, a transformation explained by the quantum-mechanical phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation. NOvA uses two neutrino detectors located 14.6 mrad off-axis from the main beam direction. The first (Near) detector stands at a distance of 1 km from the neutrino source, while the second (Far) one is at 810 km. Traveling from the Near Detector to the Far Detector, muon neutrinos can morph into electron neutrinos with a probability depending upon the parameters Δ {m}322 and sin2 θ 23, among others. By comparing the observed number of νµ and νe events at the Far Detector with the expected number of events predicted by a 3-neutrino oscillation model, NOvA is able to measure these parameters and help to improve our understanding about neutrinos. After a brief introduction to the physics of neutrinos and a presentation of the experiment, in this talk the most recent results obtained by NOvA through the study of muon neutrino oscillations νµ → νµ and νµ → νe , are shown. The oscillation parameters are found to be Δ {m}322=2.44× {10}-3 {{eV}}2 and sin2 θ 23 = 0.56.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Physics Conference Series
- Pub Date:
- May 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1088/1742-6596/1219/1/012021
- Bibcode:
- 2019JPhCS1219a2021A