Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 261802 (2014) Neutrino-induced coherent charged pion production on nuclei,
$\stackrel{(-)}{\nu}_\mu A\to\mu^\pm\pi^\mp A$ is a rare, inelastic interaction
in which a small ...squared four-momentum $| t|$ is transferred to the recoil
nucleus leaving it intact in the reaction. In the scintillator tracker of
MINERvA, we remove events with evidence of particles from nuclear breakup and
reconstruct $| t|$ from the final state pion and muon. We select low $| t|$
events to isolate a sample rich in coherent candidates. By selecting low $| t|$
events we produce a model-independent measurement of the differential cross
section for coherent scattering of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos on carbon. We
find poor agreement with the predicted kinematics in neutrino generators used
by current oscillation experiments.
Phys. Rev. D 92, 092008 (2015) Charged pion production via charged current $\nu_{\mu}$ interactions on
plastic (CH) is studied using the MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI wideband
neutrino beam at ...Fermilab. Events with hadronic invariant mass W $<$ 1.4 GeV
are selected to isolate single pion production, which is expected to occur
primarily through the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance. Cross sections as functions of
pion production angle and kinetic energy are reported and compared to
predictions from different theoretical calculations and generator-based models,
for neutrinos ranging in energy from 1.5 GeV to 10 GeV. The data are best
described by calculations which include significant contributions from pion
intranuclear rescattering. These measurements constrain the primary interaction
rate and the role of final state interactions in pion production, both of which
need to be well understood by neutrino oscillation experiments.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 231801 (2014) We present measurements of $\nu_{\mu}$ charged-current cross section ratios
on carbon, iron, and lead relative to a scintillator (CH) using the
fine-grained ...MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab.
The measurements utilize events of energies $2<E_{\nu}<20~GeV$, with $\left<
E_{\nu}\right>=8~GeV$, which have a reconstructed $\mu^{-}$ scattering angle
less than $17^\circ$ to extract ratios of inclusive total cross sections as a
function of neutrino energy $E_{\nu}$ and flux-integrated differential cross
sections with respect to the Bjorken scaling variable $x$. These results
provide the first high-statistics direct measurements of nuclear effects in
neutrino scattering using different targets in the same neutrino beam. Measured
cross section ratios exhibit a relative depletion at low $x$ and enhancement at
large $x$. Both become more pronounced as the nucleon number of the target
nucleus increases. The data are not reproduced by GENIE, a conventional
neutrino-nucleus scattering simulation, or by the alternative models for the
nuclear dependence of inelastic scattering that are considered.
The first direct measurement of electron-neutrino quasielastic and quasielastic-like scattering on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region of incident neutrino energy has been carried out using the MINERvA ...detector in the NuMI beam at Fermilab. The flux-integrated differential cross sections in electron production angle, electron energy and \(Q^{2}\) are presented. The ratio of the quasielastic, flux-integrated differential cross section in \(Q^{2}\) for \(\nu_{e}\) with that of similarly-selected \(\nu_{\mu}\)-induced events from the same exposure is used to probe assumptions that underpin conventional treatments of charged-current \(\nu_{e}\) interactions used by long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. The data are found to be consistent with lepton universality and are well-described by the predictions of the neutrino event generator GENIE.
Charged pion production via charged current \(\nu_{\mu}\) interactions on plastic (CH) is studied using the MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI wideband neutrino beam at Fermilab. Events with ...hadronic invariant mass W \(<\) 1.4 GeV are selected to isolate single pion production, which is expected to occur primarily through the \(\Delta(1232)\) resonance. Cross sections as functions of pion production angle and kinetic energy are reported and compared to predictions from different theoretical calculations and generator-based models, for neutrinos ranging in energy from 1.5 GeV to 10 GeV. The data are best described by calculations which include significant contributions from pion intranuclear rescattering. These measurements constrain the primary interaction rate and the role of final state interactions in pion production, both of which need to be well understood by neutrino oscillation experiments.
A study of charged-current muon neutrino scattering on hydrocarbon in which the final state includes a muon and a proton and no pions is presented. Although this signature has the topology of ...neutrino quasielastic scattering from neutrons, the event sample contains contributions from both quasielastic and inelastic processes where pions are absorbed in the nucleus. The analysis accepts events with muon production angles up to 70\(^{\circ}\) and proton kinetic energies greater than 110 MeV. The extracted cross section, when based completely on hadronic kinematics, is well-described by a simple relativistic Fermi gas nuclear model including the neutrino event generator modeling for inelastic processes and particle transportation through the nucleus. This is in contrast to the quasielastic cross section based on muon kinematics, which is best described by an extended model that incorporates multi-nucleon correlations. This measurement guides the formulation of a complete description of neutrino-nucleus interactions that encompasses the hadronic as well as the leptonic aspects of this process.
We present measurements of \(\nu_{\mu}\) charged-current cross section ratios on carbon, iron, and lead relative to a scintillator (CH) using the fine-grained MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI ...neutrino beam at Fermilab. The measurements utilize events of energies \(2<E_{\nu}<20~GeV\), with \(\left< E_{\nu}\right>=8~GeV\), which have a reconstructed \(\mu^{-}\) scattering angle less than \(17^\circ\) to extract ratios of inclusive total cross sections as a function of neutrino energy \(E_{\nu}\) and flux-integrated differential cross sections with respect to the Bjorken scaling variable \(x\). These results provide the first high-statistics direct measurements of nuclear effects in neutrino scattering using different targets in the same neutrino beam. Measured cross section ratios exhibit a relative depletion at low \(x\) and enhancement at large \(x\). Both become more pronounced as the nucleon number of the target nucleus increases. The data are not reproduced by GENIE, a conventional neutrino-nucleus scattering simulation, or by the alternative models for the nuclear dependence of inelastic scattering that are considered.
Neutrino-induced coherent charged pion production on nuclei, \(\stackrel{(-)}{\nu}_\mu A\to\mu^\pm\pi^\mp A\) is a rare, inelastic interaction in which a small squared four-momentum \(| t|\) is ...transferred to the recoil nucleus leaving it intact in the reaction. In the scintillator tracker of MINERvA, we remove events with evidence of particles from nuclear breakup and reconstruct \(| t|\) from the final state pion and muon. We select low \(| t|\) events to isolate a sample rich in coherent candidates. By selecting low \(| t|\) events we produce a model-independent measurement of the differential cross section for coherent scattering of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos on carbon. We find poor agreement with the predicted kinematics in neutrino generators used by current oscillation experiments.
In view of the advent of large-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube, the future Hyper-Kamiokande and the ones proposed for the Laguna project in Europe, we re-examine the determination of the ...directional position of a Galactic supernova by means of its neutrinos using the triangulation method. We study the dependence of the pointing accuracy on the arrival time resolution of supernova neutrinos at different detectors. For a failed supernova, we expect better results due to the abrupt termination of the neutrino emission which allows one to measure the arrival time with higher precision. We found that for the time resolution of \(\pm\) 2 (4) ms, the supernova can be located with a precision of \(\sim\) 5 (10)\(^\circ\) on the declination and of \(\sim\) 8 (15)\(^\circ\) on the right ascension angle, if we combine the observations from detectors at four different sites.
The construction of the Agua Negra tunnels that will link Argentina and Chile under the Andes, the world longest mountain range, opens the possibility to build the first deep underground labo- ratory ...in the Southern Hemisphere. This laboratory has the acronym ANDES (Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site) and its overburden could be as large as \sim 1.7 km of rock, or 4500 mwe, providing an excellent low background environment to study physics of rare events like the ones induced by neutrinos and/or dark matter. In this paper we investigate the physics potential of a few kiloton size liquid scintillator detector, which could be constructed in the ANDES laboratory as one of its possible scientific programs. In particular, we evaluate the impact of such a detector for the studies of geoneutrinos and galactic supernova neutrinos assuming a fiducial volume of 3 kilotons as a reference size. We emphasize the complementary roles of such a detector to the ones in the Northern Hemisphere neutrino facilities through some advantages due to its geographical location.
