Measurement of neutrino velocity with the MINOS detectors and NuMI neutrino beam

Abstract

The velocity of a $\ensuremath{\sim}3\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ neutrino beam is measured by comparing detection times at the near and far detectors of the MINOS experiment, separated by 734 km. A total of 473 far detector neutrino events was used to measure $(v\ensuremath{-}c)/c=5.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.9\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ (at 68% C.L.). By correlating the measured energies of 258 charged-current neutrino events to their arrival times at the far detector, a limit is imposed on the neutrino mass of ${m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}<50\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}/{c}^{2}$ (99% C.L.).