Date of Award
1987
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Physics and Astronomy
First Advisor
Richard L. Imlay
Abstract
A search for neutrino oscillation has been carried out at LAMPF (the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility). The engineering run in the 1986 cycle has demonstrated that the detector works as designed. The probability of oscillation between two neurino types $\nu\sb1$ and $\nu\sb2$ can be parameterized by two variables: (1) the difference between the squares of the masses of two mass eigenstates $\delta$m$\sp2$ $(\equiv\ \vert$m$\sb1\sp2$ - m$\sb2\sp2\vert),$ and (2) the mixing angle $(\theta)$ between the two states. In this experiment, we set limits on the oscillations $\bar\nu\sb\mu$ $\to$ $\bar\nu\sb{\rm e}$ and $\nu\sb{\rm e}$ $\to$ $\bar\nu\sb{\rm e}$ as a function of $\delta$m$\sp2$ and sin$\sp2 2\Theta$. For the $\bar\nu\sb\mu \to \bar\nu\sb{\rm e}$ oscillation, we obtained sin$\sp22\theta$ $<$ 0.14 (90% C.L.) in the limit of large mass difference $\delta$m$\sp2$ between neutrino mass eigenstates m$\sb1$ and m$\sb2$; and an upper limit on the product $\delta$m$\sp2$sin$\sp2 2\theta$ $<$ 0.35 eV$\sp2$ in the limit of small mass difference. For the $\nu\sb{\rm e}\to\bar\nu\sb{\rm e}$ oscillation, we obtained sin$\sp2 2\theta$ $<$ 0.21 (90% C.L.) in the limit of large mass difference $\delta$m$\sp2$ and an upper limit on the product $\delta$m$\sp2$sin$\sp2 2\theta$ $<$ 0.39 eV$\sp2$ in the limit of small mass difference.
Recommended Citation
Choi, Wai Ching, "A Search for Neutrino Oscillations." (1987). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 4439.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/4439
Pages
218
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.4439