Abstract
During May 2012, the CERN-CNGS neutrino beam has been operated for two weeks for a total of ~1.8 × 1017 p.o.t., with the proton beam made of bunches, few ns wide and separated by 100 ns. This beam structure allows a very accurate time of flight measurement of neutrinos from CERN to LNGS on an event-by-event basis. Both the ICARUS-T600 PMT-DAQ and the CERN-LNGS timing synchronization have been substantially improved for this campaign, taking advantage of additional independent GPS receivers, both at CERN and LNGS as well as of the deployment of the “White Rabbit” protocol both at CERN and LNGS. The ICARUS-T600 detector has collected 25 beam-associated events; the corresponding time of flight has been accurately evaluated, using all different time synchronization paths. The measured neutrino time of flight is compatible with the arrival of all events with speed equivalent to the one of light: the difference between the expected value based on the speed of light and the measured value is δt = tof c −tof ν = 0.10 ± 0.67stat. ± 2.39syst. ns. This result is in agreement with the value previously reported by the ICARUS Collaboration, δt = 0.3 ± 4.9stat. ± 9.0syst. ns, but with improved statistical and systematic accuracy.
References
- [1]
OPERA collaboration, T. Adam et al., Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam, JHEP 10 (2012) 093 [arXiv:1109.4897] [INSPIRE].
- [2]
A.G. Cohen and S.L. Glashow, Pair creation constrains superluminal neutrino propagation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (2011) 181803 [arXiv:1109.6562] [INSPIRE].
- [3]
ICARUS collaboration, M. Antonello et al., A search for the analogue to Cherenkov radiation by high energy neutrinos at superluminal speeds in ICARUS, Phys. Lett. B 711 (2012) 270 [arXiv:1110.3763] [INSPIRE].
- [4]
ICARUS collaboration, M. Antonello et al., Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the ICARUS detector at the CNGS beam, Phys. Lett. B 713 (2012) 17 [arXiv:1203.3433] [INSPIRE].
- [5]
S. Bertolucci, Review of other experiments at Gran Sasso, talk given at the NEUTRINO2012 conference, June 3–9, Kyoto, Japan (2012).
- [6]
Borexino collaboration, P. Alvarez Sanchez et al., Measurement of CNGS muon neutrino speed with Borexino, Phys. Lett. B 716 (2012) 401 [arXiv:1207.6860] [INSPIRE].
- [7]
LVD collaboration, N.Y. Agafonova et al., Measurement of the velocity of neutrinos from the CNGS beam with the Large Volume Detector, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (2012) 070801 [arXiv:1208.1392] [INSPIRE].
- [8]
P. Alvarez and J. Serrano, Time transfer techniques between CERN and LNGS, CERN BE-CO-HT Internal Note (2011), http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cngs-time-transfer/documents.
- [9]
Agilent (Acqiris) DP110 and AC240, http://www.agilent.com.
- [10]
Master clock GPS 2000, http://www.esat.it/EN/default.htm.
- [11]
MACRO collaboration, M. Ambrosio et al., A search for lightly ionizing particles with the MACRO detector, Phys. Rev. D 62 (2000) 052003 [hep-ex/0002029] [INSPIRE].
- [12]
MACRO collaboration, M. Ambrosio et al., The MACRO detector at Gran Sasso, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 486 (2002) 663 [INSPIRE].
- [13]
M. Lipinski et al., Performance results of the first White Rabbit installation for CNGS time transfer, private communication, to be submitted to IEEE Transactions (2012).
- [14]
B. Caccianiga et al., GPS-based CERN-LNGS time link for Borexino, 2012 JINST 7 P08028 [arXiv:1207.0591] [INSPIRE].
- [15]
ICARUS collaboration, S. Amerio et al., Design, construction and tests of the ICARUS T600 detector, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 527 (2004) 329 [INSPIRE].
- [16]
C. Rubbia et al., Underground operation of the ICARUS T600 LAr-TPC: first results, 2011 JINST 6 P07011 [arXiv:1106.0975] [INSPIRE].
- [17]
R. Acciarri et al., The WArP experiment, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 308 (2011) 012005.
- [18]
A. Ankowski et al., Characterization of ETL 9357FLA photomultiplier tubes for cryogenic temperature applications, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 556 (2006) 146 [INSPIRE].
- [19]
R.L. Rucker et al., Ultrafast dynamics of sterically hindered tetraphenylmethylbutadiene in liquids, Chem. Phys. Lett. 235 (1995) 471.
- [20]
METAS measurement reports No. 119–00210, No. 119–00209, No. 117–00611, No. 117–00612, http://www.ohwr.org/documents/113/.
- [21]
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Relative calibration of the GPS time link between CERN and LNGS, http://www.ohwr.org/documents/114/.
- [22]
L. Lyons, D. Gibaut and P. Clifford, How to combine correlated estimates of a single physical quantity, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 270 (1988) 110 [INSPIRE].
Author information
Affiliations
Consortia
Corresponding author
Additional information
ArXiv ePrint: 1208.2629
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
About this article
Cite this article
The ICARUS collaboration., Antonello, M., Baibussinov, B. et al. Precision measurement of the neutrino velocity with the ICARUS detector in the CNGS beam. J. High Energ. Phys. 2012, 49 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2012)049
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2012)049
Keywords
- Neutrino Detectors and Telescopes