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Precision Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with 10 Years of Data from the NOvA Experiment
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, if the mass ordering is normal (inverted). In both orderings, a region close to maximal mixing with 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 constraint based on Daya Bay data, this preference strengthens to a Bayes factor of 6.6 (87%).
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