LSND neutrino oscillation results

The LSND (Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector) experiment at Los Alamos has conducted a search for muon antineutrino {r_arrow} electron antineutrino oscillations using muon neutrinos from antimuon decay at rest. The electron antineutrinos are detected via the reaction electron antineutrino + proton {r_arrow} positron + neutron, correlated with the 2.2-MeV gamma from neutron + proton {r_arrow} deuteron + gamma. The use of tight cuts to identify positron events with correlated gamma rays yields 22 events with positron energy between 36 and 60 MeV and only 4.6 {+-} 0.6 background events. The probability that this excess is due entirely to a statistical fluctuation is 4.1 {times} 10{sup -8}. A chi-squared fit to the entire positron sample results in a total excess of 51.8 {sup +18.7}{sub -16.9} {+-} 8.0 events with positron energy between 20 and 60 MeV. If attributed to muon antineutrino {r_arrow} electron antineutrino oscillations, this corresponds to an oscillation probability (averaged over the experimental energy and spatial acceptance) of (0.31 {+-} 0.12 {+-} 0.05){percent}. 10 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab