Detection of a second ντ event

Abstract

OPERA is a neutrino oscillation experiment aiming to prove the tau neutrino appearance for the first time. A tau decay is identified by the detection of its characteristic decay topologies in nuclear emulsion films. OPERA reported the detection of a first tau neutrino event in 2010. We recently detected a second tau neutrino event in the 2011 run sample. The primary vertex has two charged particles of which one exhibits a three-prong vertex in the plastic base of a film after a flight length of 1.54 mm. It satisfies all the selection criteria to be a tau neutrino interaction. Especially the azimuthal angle in the transverse plane between the tau candidate track and the primary track is almost 180 degrees. The number of tau to 3π signal events expected in the analyzed sample is 0.18, the number of background events is 0.05. Considering all modes, the signal expectation is 1.91 events and the background 0.18 events.