The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber with an active volume of 7.2× 6.1× 7.0 m3. It is installed at the CERN Neutrino Platform in a specially-constructed beam that delivers charged pions, kaons, protons, muons and electrons with momenta in the range 0.3 GeV/c to 7 GeV/c. Beam line instrumentation provides accurate momentum measurements and particle identification. The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a prototype for the first far detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, and it incorporates full-size components as designed for that module. This paper describes the beam line, the time projection chamber, the photon detectors, the cosmic-ray tagger, the signal processing and particle reconstruction. It presents the first results on ProtoDUNE-SP's performance, including noise and gain measurements, dE/dx calibration for muons, protons, pions and electrons, drift electron lifetime measurements, and photon detector noise, signal sensitivity and time resolution measurements. The measured values meet or exceed the specifications for the DUNE far detector, in several cases by large margins. ProtoDUNE-SP's successful operation starting in 2018 and its production of large samples of high-quality data demonstrate the effectiveness of the single-phase far detector design.

Flavor changing (FC) neutrino-matter interactions can account for the zenith-angle-dependent deficit of atmospheric neutrinos observed in the SuperKamiokande experiment, without directly invoking either neutrino mass or mixing. We find that FC n m -matter interactions provide a good fit to the observed zenith angle distributions, comparable in quality to the neutrino oscillation hypothesis. The required FC interactions arise naturally in many attractive extensions of the standard model. [S0031-9007(99) PACS numbers: 14.60. Pq, 14.60.St, 25.30.Pt, 96.40.Tv Neutrinos produced as decay products in hadronic showers from cosmic ray collisions with nuclei in the upper atmosphere [1] have been observed by several detectors [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Although the absolute fluxes of atmospheric neutrinos are largely uncertain, the expected ratio ͑m͞e͒ of the muon neutrino flux ͑n m 1n m ͒ over the electron neutrino flux ͑n e 1n e ͒ is robust, since it largely cancels out the uncertainties associated with the absolute flux. In fact, this ratio has been calculated [1] with an uncertainty of less than 5% over energies varying from 0.1 to 100 GeV. In this resides our confidence in the longstanding atmospheric neutrino anomaly.Although the first iron-calorimeter detectors in Fréjus [2] and NUSEX [3] reported a value of the double ratio, R͑m͞e͒ ͑m͞e͒ data ͑͞m͞e͒ MC , consistent with one, all of the water Cherenkov detectors, Kamiokande [4], IMB [5], and SuperKamiokande [6], have measured R͑m͞e͒ significantly smaller than one. Moreover, not long ago, the Soudan-2 Collaboration, also using an iron calorimeter, reported a small value of R͑m͞e͒ [7], showing that the so-called atmospheric neutrino anomaly was not a feature of water Cherenkov detectors.Recent SuperKamiokande high statistics observations [6] indicate that the deficit in the total ratio R͑m͞e͒ is due to the number of neutrinos arriving in the detector at large zenith angles. Although e-like events do not present any compelling evidence of a zenith angle dependence, the m-like event rates are substantially suppressed at large zenith angles.The n m ! n t [6,8], as well as the n m ! n s [8,9], oscillation hypothesis provides an appealing explanation for this smaller-than-expected ratio, as they are simple and well motivated theoretically. This led the SuperKamiokande Collaboration to conclude that their data provide good evidence for neutrino oscillations and neutrino masses.In this Letter we give an alternative explanation of the atmospheric neutrino data in terms of flavor changing (FC) neutrino-matter interactions [10][11][12][13][14]. We show that, even if neutrinos have vanishing masses and/or the vacuum mixing angle is negligible, FC neutrino-matter interactions can still explain the SuperKamiokande data.There are attractive theories beyond the standard model (SM), where neutrinos are naturally massless [15] as a result of a protecting symmetry, such as B-L in the case of supersymmetric SU͑5͒ models [16] and the model proposed in [17], or chiral symmetry in theories w...

The deep underground neutrino experiment (DUNE), a 40-kton underground liquid argon time projection chamber experiment, will be sensitive to the electron-neutrino flavor component of the burst of neutrinos expected from the next Galactic core-collapse supernova. Such an observation will bring unique insight into the astrophysics of core collapse as well as into the properties of neutrinos. The general capabilities of DUNE for neutrino detection in the relevant few- to few-tens-of-MeV neutrino energy range will be described. As an example, DUNE’s ability to constrain the $$\nu _e$$ ν e spectral parameters of the neutrino burst will be considered.

The sensitivity of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) to neutrino oscillation is determined, based on a full simulation, reconstruction, and event selection of the far detector and a full simulation and parameterized analysis of the near detector. Detailed uncertainties due to the flux prediction, neutrino interaction model, and detector effects are included. DUNE will resolve the neutrino mass ordering to a precision of 5$$\sigma $$ σ , for all $$\delta _{\mathrm{CP}}$$ δ CP values, after 2 years of running with the nominal detector design and beam configuration. It has the potential to observe charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector to a precision of 3$$\sigma $$ σ (5$$\sigma $$ σ ) after an exposure of 5 (10) years, for 50% of all $$\delta _{\mathrm{CP}}$$ δ CP values. It will also make precise measurements of other parameters governing long-baseline neutrino oscillation, and after an exposure of 15 years will achieve a similar sensitivity to $$\sin ^{2} 2\theta _{13}$$ sin 2 2 θ 13 to current reactor experiments.