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Abstract:
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The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS ) is a two detector long -baseline neutrino experiment designed to study the disappearance of muon neutrinos . MINOS will test the v[subscript mu] → v[subscript tau] oscillation hypothesis and measure precisely [Delta]m[superscript 2 subscript 23] and sin² 2[theta subscript 23] oscillation parameters . The source of neutrinos for MINOS experiment is Fermilab's Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI ) beamline . The energy spectrum and the composition of the beam is measured at two locations , one close to the source and the other 735 km downstream in the Soudan Mine Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota . The precision measurement of the oscillation parameters requires an accurate prediction of the neutrino flux at the Far Detector . This thesis discusses the calculation of the neutrino flux at the Far Detector and its uncertainties . A technique that uses the Near Detector data to constrain the uncertainties in the calculation of the flux is described . The data corresponding to an exposure of 2 .5×1020 protons on the NuMI target is presented and an energy dependent disappearance pattern predicted by neutrino oscillation hypotheses is observed in the Far Detector data . The fit to MINOS data , for given exposure , yields the best fit values for [Delta]m[superscript 2 subscript 23] and sin² 2[theta subscript 23] to be (2 .38[superscript +0 .20 , subscript -0 .16] x 10⁻³eV² /c⁴ and 1 .00[subscript -0 .08] , respectively . |