Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector

This book presents one of the latest measurements (2012 May) of the neutrino velocity performed with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. This analysis is different from the previous ones for two main factors. From the CERN side, it uses a dedicated bunched beam instead of the standard high intensity OPERA beam, which allows a better time distribution of the events; while at the LNGS the analysis has been performed using a a dedicated time measurement based on the RPC sub-detector, which is partially independent from the standard OPERA timing system. The obtained result is the one with the smallest statistical uncertainty with respect to the other LNGS experiments and to the OPERA standard analysis. The book starts with an introduction to neutrino physiscs and OPERA experiment. Then, all the measurement details will be explained in order to end up, in the fifth chapter, to the data analysis. As in all the other LNGS experiments, the results consists in the measurement the neutrino Time of Flight with respect to the light Time of Flight. Using the CNGS spectrum the result is then expressed in term of a mass limit on the neutrino.

Autorentext

Marco Roda was born in 1988.He graduated in experimental particle physics with particular interest in neutrino physics.He started to work with the OPERA collaboration during his master thesis, which has been discussed in 2012.Now, he is a PhD student at Padova University.