A measurement of muon neutrino disappearance with the MINOS detectors and NuMI beam

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Figures

Figure 3.5: Reconstructed shower energy (top), muon momentum (middle), and muon angle (bottom) for the selected νµ charged-current events for the far detector data and MC simulation. The event selection procedure is described in Chapter 8. The MC simulation includes flux and cross-section corrections computed in Chapter 7 and corrections for the neutrino oscillations computed in Chapter 9.

Figure 3.24: Response of the near detector to neutrino beam spills. The figures show the mean signal of detector hits with the signal below (left) and above (right) the signal threshold, as labeled on each plot. The X axis labels use “strips” to stand for hits.

Figure 9.16: Illustrations of the statistical errors for the four sets of pseudoexperiments with several values of the number of protons on target (POT). The figures show the area contained within the 90% C.L. (see Figure 9.15) for one hundred pseudo-experiments at each fixed number of POT. The two fit methods are compared in these figures. The primary fit method is shown with a black line, labeled as “Separate.” The secondary fit method is shown with a red histogram, labeled as “All events.”

Table 7.3: This table lists the beam configuration, the selection type, and the number of histogram bins. The table also lists the χ2 values and the number of events in the data and MC simulation, before and after the fit. This fit includes all of the Run II LE data in addition to the data from other beam configurations.

Figure 9.4: These figures show the data spectra and the oscillated MC spectra divided by the expected MC spectra without oscillations. The top figure shows QES and RES events. The bottom figure shows the DIS events. These figures show the sum of Run I and Run II data events.

Figure 3.18: Energy resolution for Eν (top), Eµ (middle), and Ehad (bottom). Figures (a), (c), and (e) show the energy resolution computed for the true QES, RES, and DIS events in the MC simulation. Figures (b), (d), and (f) show the energy resolution computed for the selected QES, RES, and DIS events, as discussed in the text. The selected QES, RES, and DIS categories include the contributions from the true QES, RES, and DIS events, as illustrated in Figure 3.16.

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Copyright
by
Rustem Ospanov
2008

The Dissertation Committee for Rustem Ospanov
certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation:
A measurement of muon neutrino disappearance with
the MINOS detectors and NuMI beam
Committee:
Karol Lang, Supervisor
Duane Dicus
Karl Gebhardt
Sacha Kopp
Jack Ritchie

A measurement of muon neutrino disappearance with
the MINOS detectors and NuMI beam
by
Rustem Ospanov, B.S., M.A.
DISSERTATION
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of
The University of Texas at Austin
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
December 2008

Dedicated to my family.

A measurement of muon neutrino disappearance with
the MINOS detectors and NuMI beam
Publication No.
Rustem Ospanov, Ph.D.
The University of Texas at Austin, 2008
Supervisor: Karol Lang
MINOS is a long-baseline two-detector neutrino oscillation experiment
that uses a high intensity muon neutrino beam to investigate the phenomena
of neutrino oscillations. The neutrino beam is produced by the NuMI facility
at Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, and is observed at near and far detectors placed
734 km apart. The neutrino interactions in the near detector are used to
measure the initial muon neutrino flux. The vast majority of neutrinos travel
through the near detector and Earth matter without interactions. A fraction
of muon neutrinos oscillate into other flavors resulting in the disappearance of
muon neutrinos at the far detector. This thesis presents a measurement of the
muon neutrino oscillation parameters in the framework of the two-neutrino
oscillation hypothesis.
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