Two different nuclear-medium effects are isolated using a low three-momentum transfer subsample of neutrino-carbon scattering data from the MINERvA neutrino experiment. The observed hadronic energy in charged-current νµ interactions is combined with muon kinematics to permit separation of the quasielastic and ∆(1232) resonance processes. First, we observe a small cross section at very low energy transfer that matches the expected screening effect of long-range nucleon correlations. Second, additions to the event rate in the kinematic region between the quasielastic and ∆ resonance processes are needed to describe the data. The data in this kinematic region also has an enhanced population of multi-proton final states. Contributions predicted for scattering from a nucleon pair have both properties; the model tested in this analysis is a significant improvement but does not fully describe the data. We present the results as a double-differential cross section to enable further investigation of nuclear models. Improved description of the effects of the nuclear environment are required by current and future neutrino oscillation experiments.
Final-state kinematic imbalances are measured in mesonless production of ν_{μ}+A→μ^{-}+p+X in the MINERvA tracker. Initial- and final-state nuclear effects are probed using the direction of the μ^{-}-p transverse momentum imbalance and the initial-state momentum of the struck neutron. Differential cross sections are compared to predictions based on current approaches to medium modeling. These models underpredict the cross section at intermediate intranuclear momentum transfers that generally exceed the Fermi momenta. As neutrino interaction models need to correctly incorporate the effect of the nucleus in order to predict neutrino energy resolution in oscillation experiments, this result points to a region of phase space where additional cross section strength is needed in current models, and demonstrates a new technique that would be suitable for use in fine-grained liquid argon detectors where the effect of the nucleus may be even larger.
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be a world-class neutrino observatory and nucleon decay detector designed to answer fundamental questions about the nature of elementary particles and their role in the universe.
Cross sections for ν_{μ} and ν[over ¯]_{μ} induced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA
FERMILAB-PUB-16-228-NDCross sections for ν µ andν µ induced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA Separate samples of charged-current pion production events representing two semi-inclusive channels νµ-CC(π + ) andνµ-CC(π 0 ) have been obtained using neutrino and antineutrino exposures of the MINERvA detector. Distributions in kinematic variables based upon µ ± -track reconstructions are analyzed and compared for the two samples. The differential cross sections for muon production angle, muon momentum, and four-momentum transfer Q 2 , are reported, and cross sections versus neutrino energy are obtained. Comparisons with predictions of current neutrino event generators are used to clarify the role of the ∆(1232) and higher-mass baryon resonances in CC pion production and to show the importance of pion final-state interactions. For the νµ-CC(π + ) (νµ-CC(π 0 )) sample, the absolute data rate is observed to lie below (above) the predictions of some of the event generators by amounts that are typically 1-to-2 σ. However the generators are able to reproduce the shapes of the differential cross sections for all kinematic variables of either data set.
MINERvA presents a new analysis of neutrino induced quasielastic-like interactions in a hydrocarbon tracking target. We report a double-differential cross section using the muon transverse and longitudinal momentum. In addition, differential cross sections as a function of the square of the four-momentum
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.