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Precision Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with 10 Years of Data from the NOvA Experiment

S. Abubakar12, M. A. Acero2, B. Acharya32, P. Adamson13, N. Anfimov27, A. Antoshkin27, E. Arrieta-Diaz28, L. Asquith41, A. Aurisano7 et al. (The NOvA Collaboration)

A. Aurisano7, D. Azevedo15, A. Back21,25, N. Balashov27, P. Baldi26, B. A. Bambah18, E. F. Bannister41, A. Barros2, A. Bat3,12, R. Bernstein13, T. J. C. Bezerra41, V. Bhatnagar35, B. Bhuyan16, J. Bian26,31, A. C. Booth37,41, R. Bowles21, B. Brahma19, C. Bromberg29, N. Buchanan9, A. Butkevich23, S. Calvez9, T. J. Carroll43,49, E. Catano-Mur48, J. P. Cesar43, S. Chaudhary16, R. Chirco20, S. Choate50, B. C. Choudhary11, O. T. K. Chow37, A. Christensen9, M. F. Cicala45, T. E. Coan40, T. Contreras13, A. Cooleybeck49, D. Coveyou46, L. Cremonesi37, G. S. Davies32, P. F. Derwent13, P. Ding13, Z. Djurcic1, K. Dobbs17, M. Dolce47, D. Dueñas Tonguino7, E. C. Dukes46, A. Dye32, R. Ehrlich46, E. Ewart21, G. J. Feldman51, P. Filip24, M. J. Frank38, H. R. Gallagher44, F. Gao36, A. Giri19, R. A. Gomes15, M. C. Goodman1, R. Group46, A. Habig30, F. Hakl22, J. Hartnell41, R. Hatcher13, J. M. Hays37, M. He17, K. Heller31, V. Hewes7, A. Himmel13, T. Horoho46, X. Huang32, A. Ivanova27, B. Jargowsky26, I. Kakorin27, A. Kalitkina27, D. M. Kaplan20, A. Khanam42, B. Kirezli12, J. Kleykamp32, O. Klimov27, L. W. Koerner17, L. Kolupaeva27, R. Kralik41, A. Kumar35, C. D. Kuruppu39, V. Kus10, T. Lackey13,21, K. Lang43, J. Lesmeister17, A. Lister49, J. Liu26, J. A. Lock41, M. MacMahon45, S. Magill1, W. A. Mann44, M. T. Manoharan8, M. Manrique Plata21, M. L. Marshak31, M. Martinez-Casales13,25, V. Matveev23, A. Medhi16, B. Mehta35, M. D. Messier21, H. Meyer47, T. Miao13, V. Mikola45, W. H. Miller31, S. R. Mishra39, A. Mislivec31, R. Mohanta18, A. Moren30, A. Morozova27, W. Mu13, L. Mualem5, M. Muether47, K. Mulder45, C. Murthy43, D. Myers43, J. Nachtman50, D. Naples36, S. Nelleri8, J. K. Nelson48, O. Neogi50, R. Nichol45, E. Niner13, A. Norman13, A. Norrick13, H. Oh7, A. Olshevskiy27, T. Olson17, M. Ozkaynak45, A. Pal34, J. Paley13, L. Panda34, R. B. Patterson5, G. Pawloski31, R. Petti39, R. K. Plunkett13, L. R. Prais32,7, A. Rafique1, V. Raj5, M. Rajaoalisoa7, B. Ramson13, B. Rebel49, C. Reynolds37, E. Robles26, P. Roy47, O. Samoylov27, M. C. Sanchez14,25, S. Sánchez Falero25, P. Shanahan13, P. Sharma35, A. Sheshukov27, A. Shmakov26, W. Shorrock41, S. Shukla4, I. Singh11, P. Singh37,11, V. Singh4, S. Singh Chhibra37, D. K. Singha18, E. Smith21, J. Smolik10, P. Snopok20, N. Solomey47, A. Sousa7, K. Soustruznik6, M. Strait13,31, C. Sullivan44, L. Suter13, A. Sutton14,25, K. Sutton5, S. K. Swain34, A. Sztuc45, N. Talukdar39, P. Tas6, T. Thakore7, J. Thomas45, E. Tiras12,25, M. Titus8, Y. Torun20, D. Tran17, J. Trokan-Tenorio48, J. Urheim21, B. Utt31, P. Vahle48, Z. Vallari33, K. J. Vockerodt37, A. V. Waldron37, M. Wallbank7,13, T. K. Warburton25, C. Weber31, M. Wetstein25, D. Whittington42, D. A. Wickremasinghe13, J. Wolcott44, S. Wu31, W. Wu26, W. Wu36, Y. Xiao26, B. Yaeggy7, A. Yahaya47, A. Yankelevich26, K. Yonehara13, S. Zadorozhnyy23, J. Zalesak24, and R. Zwaska13 (The NOvA Collaboration)

  • 1Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
  • 2Universidad del Atlantico, Carrera 30 No. 8-49, Puerto Colombia, Atlantico, Colombia
  • 3Bandirma Onyedi Eylül University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Engineering Sciences Department, 10200, Bandirma, Bal𝚤kesir, Turkey
  • 4Department of Physics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, India
  • 5California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
  • 6Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 7Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
  • 8Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi 682 022, India
  • 9Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1875, USA
  • 10Czech Technical University in Prague, Brehova 7, 115 19 Prague 1, Czech Republic
  • 11Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India
  • 12Department of Physics, Erciyes University, Kayseri 38030, Turkey
  • 13Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
  • 14Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
  • 15Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás 74690-900, Brazil
  • 16Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India
  • 17Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
  • 18School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500 046, India
  • 19Department of Physics, IIT Hyderabad, Hyderabad 502 205, India
  • 20Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA
  • 21Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
  • 22Institute of Computer Science, The Czech Academy of Sciences, 182 07 Prague, Czech Republic
  • 23Institute for Nuclear Research of Russia, Academy of Sciences 7a, 60th October Anniversary prospect, Moscow 117312, Russia
  • 24Institute of Physics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, 182 21 Prague, Czech Republic
  • 25Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
  • 26Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
  • 27Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Moscow region 141980, Russia
  • 28Universidad del Magdalena, Carrera 32 No 22-08, Santa Marta, Colombia
  • 29Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
  • 30Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA
  • 31School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
  • 32University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677, USA
  • 33Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
  • 34National Institute of Science Education and Research, An OCC of Homi Bhabha National Institute, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
  • 35Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160 014, India
  • 36Department of Physics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
  • 37Particle Physics Research Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
  • 38Department of Physics, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 36688, USA
  • 39Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA
  • 40Department of Physics, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
  • 41Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom
  • 42Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA
  • 43Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
  • 44Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
  • 45Physics and Astronomy Department, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
  • 46Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA
  • 47Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 67260, USA
  • 48Department of Physics, William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA
  • 49Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
  • 50Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
  • 51Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 011802 – Published 8 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/x53y-2b86

Abstract

This Letter reports measurements of muon-neutrino disappearance and electron-neutrino appearance and the corresponding antineutrino processes between the two NOvA detectors in the NuMI neutrino beam. These measurements use a dataset with double the neutrino mode beam exposure that was previously analyzed, along with improved simulation and analysis techniques. A joint fit to these samples in the three-flavor paradigm results in the most precise single-experiment constraint on the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting, Δm322=2.431−0.034+0.036(−2.479−0.036+0.036)×10−3  eV2 if the mass ordering is normal (inverted). In both orderings, a region close to maximal mixing with sin2θ23=0.55−0.06+0.02 is preferred. The NOvA data show a mild preference for the normal mass ordering with a Bayes factor of 2.4 (corresponding to 70% of the posterior probability), indicating that the normal ordering is 2.4 times more probable than the inverted ordering. When incorporating a 2D Δm322−sin22θ13 constraint based on Daya Bay data, this preference strengthens to a Bayes factor of 6.6 (87%).

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