We present an analysis of atmospheric neutrino data from a 33.0 kton yr (535-day) exposure of the Super-Kamiokande detector. The data exhibit a zenith angle dependent deficit of muon neutrinos which is inconsistent with expectations based on calculations of the atmospheric neutrino flux. Experimental biases and uncertainties in the prediction of neutrino fluxes and cross sections are unable to explain our observation. The data are consistent, however, with two-flavor n m $ n t oscillations with sin 2 2u . Atmospheric neutrinos are produced as decay products in hadronic showers resulting from collisions of cosmic rays with nuclei in the upper atmosphere. Production of electron and muon neutrinos is dominated by the processes p 1 ! m 1 1 n m followed by m 1 ! e 1 1 n m 1 n e (and their charge conjugates) giving an expected ratio 1562 0031-9007͞98͞81(8)͞1562(6)$15.00

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A benchmark experiment on (208)Pb shows that polarized proton inelastic scattering at very forward angles including 0° is a powerful tool for high-resolution studies of electric dipole (E1) and spin magnetic dipole (M1) modes in nuclei over a broad excitation energy range to test up-to-date nuclear models. The extracted E1 polarizability leads to a neutron skin thickness r(skin) = 0.156(-0.021)(+0.025) fm in (208)Pb derived within a mean-field model [Phys. Rev. C 81, 051303 (2010)], thereby constraining the symmetry energy and its density dependence relevant to the description of neutron stars.

A total of 614 upward through-going muons of minimum energy 1.6 GeV are observed by Super-Kamiokande during 537 detector live days. The measured muon flux is (1.74 ± 0.07(stat.) ± 0.02(sys.)) × 10 −13 cm −2 s −1 sr −1 compared to an expected flux of (1.97 ± 0.44(theo.)) × 10 −13 cm −2 s −1 sr −1 . The absolute measured flux is in agreement with the prediction within the errors. However, the zenith angle dependence of the observed upward through-going muon flux does not agree with no-oscillation predictions. The observed distortion in shape is consistent with the νµ ↔ ντ oscillation hypothesis with sin 2 2θ > 0.4 and 1 × 10 −3 < ∆m 2 < 1 × 10 −1 eV 2 at 90 % confidence level.

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