MINOS neutrino oscillation results

Neutrinos interact only weakly with other matter and had been thought to be massless. However, if their mass is non-zero, they could change flavors as they propagate. Recent results from observations of atmospheric, solar, and reactor neutrinos indicate that they do change flavor and these observations have provided measurements of two of the three possible mixings. The MINOS experiment is now making precise measurements of the v(mu) <-> v(tau) oscillations seen in atmospheric neutrinos, and extends our reach towards the so far unseen angle theta(13) by looking for v(e) appearance from the v(mu) beam. It does so by using the intense, well-understood NuMI neutrino beam created at Fermi lab and observing it 735 km away at the Soudan Mine in Northeast Minnesota. This combination also allows investigation of the oscillation properties of anti-neutrinos, as the NuMI beam can focus opposite-charged pions to produce the anti-neutrinos, and the MINOS detectors are magnetized, allowing event-by-event discrimination of the resulting muon charge-sign.