Neutrino velocity measurement with the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam

The thesis concerns the measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam. There are different theoretical models that allow for Lorentz violating effects which can be investigated with measurements on terrestrial neutrino beams. The MINOS experiment published in 2007 a measure on the muon neutrinos over a distance of 730 km finding a deviation with respect to the expected time of flight of 126 ns with a statistical error of 32 ns and a systematic error of 64 ns. The OPERA experiment observes as well muon neutrinos 730 km away from the source, with a sensitivity significantly better than MINOS thanks to the higher number of interactions in the detector due to the higher energy beam and the much more sophisticated timing system explicitly upgraded in view of the neutrino velocity measurement. This system is composed by atomic cesium clocks and GPS receivers operating in “common view mode”. Thanks to this system a time-transfer between the two sites with a precision at the level of 1 ns is possible. Moreover, a Fast Waveform Digitizer was installed along the proton beam line at CERN in order to measure the internal time structure of the proton pulses that are sent to the CNGS target. The result on the neutrino velocity is the most precise measurement so far with terrestrial neutrino beams: the neutrino time of flight was determined with a statistical uncertainty of about 10 ns and a systematic uncertainty smaller than 20 ns.

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Field Value
Source https://theses.hal.science/tel-00843100
Author Brunetti, Giulia
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 10, 2026, 09:56 (UTC)
Created May 10, 2026, 09:56 (UTC)
Identifier NNT: 2011LYO10088
Language en
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Institut de Physique Nucléaire de Lyon (IPNL) ; Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL) ; Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
creator Brunetti, Giulia
date 2011-05-20T00:00:00
harvest_object_id bcb165c4-49bb-4cd0-ad28-dc62b4744302
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2026-03-31T00:00:00
set_spec type:THESE