No Arabic abstract
A brief review of the experimental status of neutrino mixing. The model of neutrino oscillations has now been established with high confidence, with many of the model parameters measured to an accuracy of a few per cent. However, some parameters still remain unknown, notably the mixing angle $theta_{13}$ and the amount of CP violation. Recently, new questions have come to light, highlighting possibilities to search for new physics in the neutrino sector.
The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) will utilize a neutrino beamline facility located at Fermilab. The facility is designed to aim a beam of neutrinos toward a detector placed in South Dakota. The neutrinos are produced in a three-step process. First, protons from the Main Injector hit a solid target and produce mesons. Then, the charged mesons are focused by a set of focusing horns into the decay pipe, towards the far detector. Finally, the mesons that enter the decay pipe decay into neutrinos. The parameters of the facility were determined by an amalgam of the physics goals, the Monte Carlo modeling of the facility, and the experience gained by operating the NuMI facility at Fermilab. The initial beam power is expected to be ~700 kW, however some of the parameters were chosen to be able to deal with a beam power of 2.3 MW. The LBNE Neutrino Beam has made significant changes to the initial design through consideration of numerous Value Engineering proposals and the current design is described.
Results are reported from a search for active to sterile neutrino oscillations in the MINOS long-baseline experiment, based on the observation of neutral-current neutrino interactions, from an exposure to the NuMI neutrino beam of $7.07times10^{20}$ protons on target. A total of 802 neutral-current event candidates is observed in the Far Detector, compared to an expected number of $754pm28rm{(stat.)}pm{37}rm{(syst.)}$ for oscillations among three active flavors. The fraction $f_s$ of disappearing umu that may transition to $ u_s$ is found to be less than 22% at the 90% C.L.
We report results from the first search for sterile neutrinos mixing with active neutrinos through a reduction in the rate of neutral-current interactions over a baseline of 810,km between the NOvA detectors. Analyzing a 14-kton detector equivalent exposure of 6.05$times$10$^{20}$ protons-on-target in the NuMI beam at Fermilab, we observe 95 neutral-current candidates at the Far Detector compared with $83.5 pm 9.7 mbox{(stat.)} pm 9.4 mbox{(syst.)}$ events predicted assuming mixing only occurs between active neutrino species. No evidence for $ u_{mu} rightarrow u_{s}$ transitions is found. Interpreting these results within a 3+1 model, we place constraints on the mixing angles $theta_{24}<20.8^{circ}$ and $theta_{34}<31.2^{circ}$ at the 90% C.L. for $0.05~eV^2leq Delta m^2_{41}leq 0.5~eV^2$, the range of mass splittings that produce no significant oscillations over the Near Detector baseline.
The last unknown neutrino mixing angle $theta_{13}$ is one of the fundamental parameters of nature; it is also a crucial parameter for determining the sensitivity of future long-baseline experiments aimed to study CP violation in the neutrino sector. Daya Bay is a reactor neutrino oscillation experiment designed to achieve a sensitivity on the value of $sin^2(2theta_{13})$ to better than 0.01 at 90% CL. The experiment consists of multiple identical detectors placed underground at different baselines to minimize systematic errors and suppress cosmogenic backgrounds. With the baseline design, the expected anti-neutrino signal at the far site is about 360 events per day and at each of the near sites is about 1500 events per day. An overview and current status of the experiment will be presented.
We summarize the current status of accelerator based neutrino crosssection measurements. We focus on the experimental challenges while also presenting the motivation for these measurements. Selected results are highlighted after a quick description of the current major collaborations working on the field.