New results from MINOS and MINOS+

Abstract

The MINOS and MINOS+ experiment consists of two magnetised steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters, observing flavour change in the NuMI beam over 735 km. With eleven years of data from both νμ and beam modes, in configurations with peak energies at 3 GeV and 7 GeV, the experiment has made precision measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters and performed a number searches for new physics in the neutrino sector. These proceedings present a set of new results covering a range of topics. The largest neutrino mass-squared splitting is measured to be (2.42 ± 0.09) × 10−3 eV2 assuming the normal mass hierarchy and assuming the inverted mass hierarchy. Searches for sterile neutrinos and antineutrinos are presented, setting limits on the mixing angle θ24 over six orders of magnitude in the mass-squared splitting . The neutrino limits constrain sin2 θ24 < 0.022 and sin2 θ34 < 0.28 at , both at 95% CL. Limits are set on the possible size of a large extra dimension, R < 0.17 μm (90% CL), assuming the lightest neutrino state has zero mass. Limits are set on the parameter εeτ of a model of non-standard neutrino interactions. A search for non-standard appearance of electron neutrinos above 6 GeV observes 78 events, compared to an expectation of 56.7, and is interpreted as a limit on the PMNS matrix element combination 4|Uμ4|2|Ue4|2 in a sterile neutrino model. Finally, a combination of the MINOS νμ disappearance search with disappearance searches from Daya Bay and Bugey-3 excludes the parameter space allowed by LSND and MiniBooNE for at 90% CL.