Abstract:

Initial results from a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations by the MiniBooNE Collaboration will be reported. MiniBooNE was motivated by the result from the LSND experiment which presented evidence for oscillations at high Delta m2 (around 1 eV2). The MiniBooNE experiment uses a high intensity neutrino beam produced by protons from the Fermilab Booster accelerator; the average muon neutrino energy for this beam is ~800 MeV. A 1 kton pure mineral oil detector instrumented with ~1500 photomultiplier tubes is placed 540 m away from the production target and used to identify and measure muon and electron neutrino events. MiniBooNE performed a "blind" analysis, where all analysis selections and fitting procedures are determined before candidate electron neutrino events are examined. Results of this analysis will be presented for the current data set corresponding to 5.58E20 protons on target.