Evidence for numu->nutau appearance in the CNGS neutrino beam with the OPERA experiment

Agafonova, N; Aleksandrov, A; Anokhina, A; Aoki, S; Ariga, A; Ariga, T; Asada, T; Autiero, D; Ben Dhahbi, A; Badertscher, A; Bender, D; Bertolin, A; Bozza, C; Brugnera, R; Brunet, F; Brunetti, G; Buonaura, A; Buontempo, S; Büttner, B; Chaussard, L; Chernyavsky, M; Chiarella, V; Chukanov, A; Consiglio, L; D'Ambrosio, N; De Lellis, G; De Serio, M; Del Amo Sanchez, P; Di Crescenzo, A; Di Ferdinando, D; Di Marco, N; Dmitrievski, S; Dracos, M; Duchesneau, D; Dusini, S; Dzhatdoev, T; Ebert, J; Ereditato, A; Favier, J; Ferber, T; Ferone, G; Fini, R; Fukuda, T; Galati, G; Garfagnini, A; Giacomelli, G; Goellnitz, C; Goldberg, J; Gornushkin, Y; Grella, G; Grianti, F; Guler, M; Gustavino, C; Hagner, C; Hakamata, K; Hara, T; Hayakawa, T; Hierholzer, M; Hollnagel, A; Hosseini, B; Ishida, H; Ishiguro, K; Ishikawa, M; Jakovcic, K; Jollet, C; Kamiscioglu, C; Kamiscioglu, M; Katsuragawa, T; Kawada, J; Kawahara, H; Kim, J; Kim, S; Kimura, M; Kitagawa, N; Klicek, B; Kodama, K; Komatsu, M; Kose, U; Kreslo, I; Lauria, A; Lenkeit, J; Ljubicic, A; Longhin, A; Loverre, P; Malgin, A; Mandrioli, G; Marteau, J; Matsuo, T; Matveev, V; Mauri, N; Medinaceli, E; Meregaglia, A; Migliozzi, P; Mikado, S; Miyanishi, M; Miyashita, E; Monacelli, P; Montesi, M; Morishima, K; Muciaccia, M; Naganawa, N; Naka, T; Nakamura, M; Nakano, T; Nakatsuka, Y; Niwa, K; Ogawa, S; Okateva, N; Olshevsky, A; Omura, T; Ozaki, K; Paoloni, A; Park, B; Park, I; Pastore, A; Patrizii, L; Pennacchio, E; Pessard, H; Pistillo, C; Podgrudkov, D; Polukhina, N; Pozzato, M; Pretzl, K; Pupilli, F; Rescigno, R; Roda, M; Rokujo, H; Roganova, T; Rosa, G; Rostovtseva, I; Rubbia, A; Ryazhskaya, O; Sato, O; Sato, Y; Schembri, A; Schmidt-Parzefal, W; Shakiryanova, I; Shchedrina, T; Sheshukov, A; Shibuya, H; Shiraishi, T; Shoziyoev, G; Simone, S; Sioli, M; Sirignano, C; Sirri, G; Spinetti, M; Stanco, L; Starkov, N; Stellacci, S; Stipcevic, M; Strauss, T; Strolin, P; Suzuki, K; Takahashi, S; Tenti, M; Terranova, F; Tioukov, V; Tufanli, S; Vilain, P; Vladimirov, M; Votano, L; Vuilleumier, J; Wilquet, G; Wonsak, B; Yoon, C; Yoshida, J; Yoshimoto, M; Zaitsev, Y; Zemskova, S; Zghiche, A

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.89.051102

The OPERA experiment is designed to search for νμ→ντ oscillations in appearance mode, i.e., through the direct observation of the τ lepton in ντ-charged current interactions. The experiment has taken data for five years, since 2008, with the CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso beam. Previously, two ντ candidates with a τ decaying into hadrons were observed in a subsample of data of the 2008-2011 runs. Here we report the observation of a third ντ candidate in the τ-→μ- decay channel coming from the analysis of a subsample of the 2012 run. Taking into account the estimated background, the absence of νμ→ντ oscillations is excluded at the 3.4σ level. © 2014 American Physical Society.

Agafonova, N., Aleksandrov, A., Anokhina, A., Aoki, S., Ariga, A., Ariga, T., et al. (2014). Evidence for numu->nutau appearance in the CNGS neutrino beam with the OPERA experiment. PHYSICAL REVIEW D, PARTICLES, FIELDS, GRAVITATION, AND COSMOLOGY, 89(5) [10.1103/PhysRevD.89.051102].