Speaker
Description
Neutrino Oscillation has been one of the most promising sources of physics beyond the standard model in many experimental searches so far. Various short and long baseline experiments have been developed using the most advanced detector technologies to detect this elusive particle. NOvA is one such experiment designed with the initial aim of looking at the possibility of the oscillation of muon neutrino to electron neutrino. In addition to the study of standard three-flavor neutrino oscillation, the NoVA experimental facility allows one to study physics beyond the standard model as well, such as the search for the sterile neutrino. We use the neutral current events for the sterile neutrino analysis. It is one of the three interactions in the detector, namely $\nu_{\mu}$-CC, $\nu_{e}$-CC, and NC interaction, where CC is charged current, and NC is neutral current. Furthermore, for this analysis, we have been using the joint two detectors fit approach instead of the previously used near-to-far detector ratio approach giving an additional advantage of enhancement in the $\Delta m_{41}^2$ space.
Based on the properties of NC events, various selection criteria have been applied to distinguish the true NC events from the background events for the analysis. Since the NOvA far detector is located on the surface and is continuously exposed to the cosmic ray particles, the comics are a dominant background for the sterile analysis. The strategy adopted for the reduction of the cosmic background and the preliminary results from this analysis will be presented in this talk.
| Session | Neutrino Physics |
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