Using L/E Oscillation Probability Distributions

Abstract

This paper explores the use of L /E oscillation probability distributions to compare experimental measurements and to evaluate oscillation models. In this case, L is the distance of neutrino travel and E is a measure of the interacting neutrino’s energy. While comparisons using allowed and excluded regions for oscillation model parameters are likely the only rigorous method for these comparisons, the L /E distributions are shown to give qualitative information on the agreement of an experiment’s data with a simple two-neutrino oscillation model. In more detail, this paper also outlines how the L /E distributions can be best calculated and used for model comparisons. Specifically, the paper presents the L /E data points for the final MiniBooNE data samples and, in the Appendix, explains and corrects the mistaken analysis published by the ICARUS collaboration.