Using L/E Oscillation Probability Distributions

Abstract

This paper explores the use of L/E oscillation probability distributions to compare experimental measurements and to evaluate oscillation models. In this case, L is the distance of neutrino travel and E is a measure of the interacting neutrino's energy. While comparisons using allowed and excluded regions for oscillation model parameters are likely the only rigorous method for these comparisons, the L/E distributions are shown to give qualitative information on the agreement of an experiment's data with a simple two-neutrino oscillation model. In more detail, this paper also outlines how the L/E distributions can be best calculated and used for model comparisons. Specifically, the paper presents the L/E data points for the final MiniBooNE data samples and, in the Appendix, explains and corrects the mistaken analysis published by the ICARUS collaboration.

Charged pion production inνμinteractions on hydrocarbon at⟨Eν⟩=4.0 Eberly1, Aliaga2, Altinok3 et al. 2015Phys. Rev. D911910View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…carbon, oxygen, and argon) is an important process for current and future long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments [1][2][3]. Recent measurements highlight the important role that the nuclear medium plays in the production and propagation of hadrons produced in neutrino-nucleus interactions [4][5][6][7]. These experiments find cross section distortions which are absent in scattering from free nucleons and affect both event rates and final state kinematics.…”

“…These experiments find cross section distortions which are absent in scattering from free nucleons and affect both event rates and final state kinematics. These effects impact oscillation experiments, such as T2K [8] and MiniBooNE [9], that rely on the charged-current quasielastic (CCQE) interaction on bound neutrons, ν n → − p, to reconstruct the neutrino energy. Although this is a relatively well-understood reaction with simple kinematics, the reconstruction and interpretation of events that appear quasielastic are complicated by the presence of the nuclear medium.…”

“…The K2K [21] and MiniBooNE [22] collaborations measured the CC1π + to CCQE cross section ratio on carbon and mineral oil (CH 2 ) targets, respectively. MiniBooNE also reported an absolute cross section measurement of CC1π + on a nuclear target (CH 2 ) for E ν ∼ 1 GeV [23].…”

An Intermediate Water Cherenkov Detector at J-PARC

“…Both TITUS and NuPRISM would have the correct baseline and neutrino energy spectrum to test the LSND [15] and MiniBooNE [16] short baseline results, but the NuPRISM concept provides some unique capabilities. As Figure 13 shows, moving further off-axis in NuPRISM means that the neutrino spectrum being sampled peaks at different energies, which can be used to test the energy dependence of any oscillation signal.…”

Neutrino CC0π Double Differential Cross-section on Hydrocarbon at T2K On-axis Detector

“…The requirement to use these models comes from the difference in neutrino fluxes, detector acceptances and target material. The magnitude of these errors comes from the large uncertainties on these models, with different data sets showing disagreements between each other [4][5][6][7]9]. In particular, there is a large uncertainty on the understanding of interactions between nucleons, the Meson Exchanged Currents (MEC), which depends on the composition of the nucleus.…”