Candidate events in a search for anti-muon-neutrino ---> anti-electron-neutrino oscillations
/ Authors
C. Athanassopoulos, J. Margulies, W. Metcalf, Yonghong Xiao, R. Imlay, Yu Wang, F. Federspiel, B. Boyd, G. Vandalen, K. Johnston
and 25 more authors
K. McIlhany, R. L. Burman, R. Bolton, I. Cohen, L. Auerbach, M. Schillaci, W. Vernon, J. Donahue, I. Stancu, D. O. Caldwell, R. Reeder, V. Highland, David S. Smith, D. H. White, A. Lu, W. Louis, A. Eisner, W. Strossman, R. Gunasingha, D. Whitehouse, D. Works, M. Gray, G. Garvey, A. Fazely, V. Sandberg
/ Abstract
A search for $\nuebar$'s in excess of the number expected from conventional sources has been made using the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector, located 30 m from a proton beam dump at LAMPF. A $\nuebar$ signal was detected via the reaction $\nuebar\,p \rightarrow e~{+}\,n$ with $e~+$ energy between 36 and $60\mev$, followed by a $\gamma$ from $np\rightarrow d\gamma$ ($2.2\mev$). Using strict cuts to identify $\gamma$'s correlated with positrons results in a signal of 9 events, with an expected background of $2.1 \pm 0.3$. A likelihood fit to the entire $e~+$ sample yields a total excess of $16.4~{+9.7}_{-8.9}\pm 3.3$ events, where the second uncertainty is systematic. If this excess is attributed to neutrino oscillations of the type $\numubar\rightarrow\nuebar$, it corresponds to an oscillation probability of ($0.34~{+0.20}_{-0.18}\pm 0.07$)\%.
Journal: Physical Review Letters