2012/03/29 by M. Antonello, P. Aprili, B. Baiboussinov +75 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ex #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2012.05.033
13 pages, 1 table, 3 figures
arxiv created 2012/03/29 · openalex publication_date 2012/05/17 · arxiv updated 2015/06/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The CERN-SPS accelerator has been briefly operated in a new, lower intensity neutrino mode with ~1012 p.o.t. /pulse and with a beam structure made of four LHC-like extractions, each with a narrow width of 3 ns, separated by 524 ns. This very tightly bunched beam structure represents a substantial progress with respect to the ordinary operation of the CNGS beam, since it allows a very accurate time-of-flight measurement of neutrinos from CERN to LNGS on an event-to-event basis. The ICARUS T600 detector has collected 7 beam-associated events, consistent with the CNGS delivered neutrino flux of 2.2 1016 p.o.t. and in agreement with the well known characteristics of neutrino events in the LAr-TPC. The time of flight difference between the speed of light and the arriving neutrino LAr-TPC events has been analysed. The result is compatible with the simultaneous arrival of all events with equal speed, the one of light. This is in a striking difference with the reported result of OPERA that claimed that high energy neutrinos from CERN should arrive at LNGS about 60 ns earlier than expected from luminal speed.