Speaker
Timur Dzhatdoev
(PNPI MSU, Moscow, Russia)
Description
The present talk highlights the data analysis status of the OPERA experiment. The experiment exploited the CNGS beam from CERN to Gran Sasso, at the average L/E ratio of 43 km/GeV, optimized to search for ν_μ→ν_τ oscillation in appearance mode, and also allowing to perform a ν_e appearance search. Profiting of the sub-micrometer spatial resolution of nuclear emulsions, employed in the OPERA experiment, it is possible to identify and analyze the neutrino interactions on event-by-event basis.
The hardware of the experiment as well as the status of emulsion scanning are described in the other OPERA presentation by Andrey Sheshukov. In this talk we review the data simulation and the analysis chains, with an emphasis on what was done during the last year. The main kinematical parameters of the neutrino event are introduced; we specially discuss the parameters sensitive to the neutrino flavor. The uncertainties on the event parameter estimation are reviewed, and the main sources of background for the ν_μ→ν_τ oscillation search are examined. The topologies of the three observed ν_τ candidate events are discussed.
The status of the ν_e appearance search is also reviewed, the ν_e identification technique and the main sources of relevant background are briefly discussed. Finally, we present the constraints set by the OPERA experiment on the mixing angle θ_13 and on the LSND/MiniBooNE anomaly.
