The MINERvA collaboration operated a scaled-down replica of the solid scintillator tracking and sampling calorimeter regions of the MINERvA detector in a hadron test beam at the Fermilab Test Beam ...Facility. This article reports measurements with samples of protons, pions, and electrons from 0.35 to 2.0 GeV/c momentum. The calorimetric response to protons, pions, and electrons are obtained from these data. A measurement of the parameter in Birks' law and an estimate of the tracking efficiency are extracted from the proton sample. Overall the data are well described by a Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulation of the detector and particle interactions with agreements better than 4%, though some features of the data are not precisely modeled. These measurements are used to tune the MINERvA detector simulation and evaluate systematic uncertainties in support of the MINERvA neutrino cross section measurement program.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 022504 (2018) Final-state kinematic imbalances are measured in mesonless production of
$\nu_\mu + A \to \mu^- + p + X$ in the MINERvA tracker. Initial- and
final-state nuclear ...effects are probed using the direction of the $\mu^-$-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 under-predict 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.
Phys. Rev. D 96, 072003 (2017) The semi-exclusive channel
$\nu_{\mu}+\textrm{CH}\rightarrow\mu^{-}\pi^{0}+\textrm{nucleon(s)}$ is
analyzed using MINERvA exposed to the low-energy NuMI $\nu_{\mu}$ ...beam with
spectral peak at $E_{\nu} \simeq 3$ GeV. Differential cross sections for muon
momentum and production angle, $\pi^{0}$ kinetic energy and production angle,
and for squared four-momentum transfer are reported, and the cross section
$\sigma(E_{\nu})$ is obtained over the range 1.5 GeV $\leq E_{\nu} <$ 20 GeV.
Results are compared to GENIE and NuWro predictions and to published MINERvA
cross sections for $\nu_{\mu}\textrm{-CC}(\pi^{+})$ and
$\bar{\nu}_{\mu}\textrm{-CC}(\pi^{0})$. Disagreements between data and
simulation are observed at very low and relatively high values for muon angle
and for $Q^2$ that may reflect shortfalls in modeling of interactions on
carbon. For $\pi^{0}$ kinematic distributions however, the data are consistent
with the simulation and provide support for generator treatments of pion
intranuclear scattering. Using signal-event subsamples that have reconstructed
protons as well as $\pi^{0}$ mesons, the $p\pi^{0}$ invariant mass distribution
is obtained, and the decay polar and azimuthal angle distributions in the rest
frame of the $p\pi^{0}$ system are measured in the region of $\Delta(1232)^+$
production, $W < 1.4$ GeV.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 011802 (2017) Neutral-current production of $K^{+}$ by atmospheric neutrinos is a
background in searches for the proton decay $p \rightarrow K^{+} \bar{\nu}$.
Reactions such as ...$\nu p \rightarrow \nu K^{+} \Lambda$ are indistinguishable
from proton decays when the decay products of the $\Lambda$ are below detection
threshold. Events with $K^{+}$ are identified in MINERvA by reconstructing the
timing signature of a $K^{+}$ decay at rest. A sample of 201 neutrino-induced
neutral-current $K^{+}$ events is used to measure differential cross sections
with respect to the $K^{+}$ kinetic energy, and the non-$K^{+}$ hadronic
visible energy. An excess of events at low hadronic visible energy is observed
relative to the prediction of the NEUT event generator. Good agreement is
observed with the cross section prediction of the GENIE generator. A search for
photons from $\pi^{0}$ decay, which would veto a neutral-current $K^{+}$ event
in a proton decay search, is performed, and a 2$\sigma$ deficit of detached
photons is observed relative to the GENIE prediction.
Phys. Rev. D 94, 112007 (2016) The total cross sections are important ingredients for the current and future
neutrino oscillation experiments. We present measurements of the total
charged-current ...neutrino and antineutrino cross sections on scintillator (CH)
in the NuMI low-energy beamline using an {\em in situ} prediction of the shape
of the flux as a function of neutrino energy from 2--50 GeV. This flux
prediction takes advantage of the fact that neutrino and antineutrino
interactions with low nuclear recoil energy ($\nu$) have a nearly constant
cross section as a function of incident neutrino energy. This measurement is
the lowest energy application of the low-$\nu$ flux technique, the first time
it has been used in the NuMI antineutrino beam configuration, and demonstrates
that the technique is applicable to future neutrino beams operating at
multi-GeV energies. The cross section measurements presented are the most
precise measurements to date below 5 GeV.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 061802 (2016) Neutrino-induced charged-current coherent kaon production,
$\nu_{\mu}A\rightarrow\mu^{-}K^{+}A$, is a rare, inelastic electroweak process
that brings a $K^+$ on ...shell and leaves the target nucleus intact in its ground
state. This process is significantly lower in rate than neutrino-induced
charged-current coherent pion production, because of Cabibbo suppression and a
kinematic suppression due to the larger kaon mass. We search for such events in
the scintillator tracker of MINERvA by observing the final state $K^+$, $\mu^-$
and no other detector activity, and by using the kinematics of the final state
particles to reconstruct the small momentum transfer to the nucleus, which is a
model-independent characteristic of coherent scattering. We find the first
experimental evidence for the process at $3\sigma$ significance.
Phys. Rev. D 94, 012002 (2016) Production of K^{+} mesons in charged-current \nu_{\mu} interactions on
plastic scintillator (CH) is measured using MINERvA exposed to the low-energy
NuMI beam at ...Fermilab. Timing information is used to isolate a sample of 885
charged-current events containing a stopping K^{+} which decays at rest. The
differential cross section in K^{+} kinetic energy, d\sigma/dT_{K}, is observed
to be relatively flat between 0 and 500 MeV. Its shape is in good agreement
with the prediction by the \textsc{genie} neutrino event generator when
final-state interactions are included, however the data rate is lower than the
prediction by 15\%.
The semi-exclusive channel \(\nu_{\mu}+\textrm{CH}\rightarrow\mu^{-}\pi^{0}+\textrm{nucleon(s)}\) is analyzed using MINERvA exposed to the low-energy NuMI \(\nu_{\mu}\) beam with spectral peak at ...\(E_{\nu} \simeq 3\) GeV. Differential cross sections for muon momentum and production angle, \(\pi^{0}\) kinetic energy and production angle, and for squared four-momentum transfer are reported, and the cross section \(\sigma(E_{\nu})\) is obtained over the range 1.5 GeV \(\leq E_{\nu} <\) 20 GeV. Results are compared to GENIE and NuWro predictions and to published MINERvA cross sections for \(\nu_{\mu}\textrm{-CC}(\pi^{+})\) and \(\bar{\nu}_{\mu}\textrm{-CC}(\pi^{0})\). Disagreements between data and simulation are observed at very low and relatively high values for muon angle and for \(Q^2\) that may reflect shortfalls in modeling of interactions on carbon. For \(\pi^{0}\) kinematic distributions however, the data are consistent with the simulation and provide support for generator treatments of pion intranuclear scattering. Using signal-event subsamples that have reconstructed protons as well as \(\pi^{0}\) mesons, the \(p\pi^{0}\) invariant mass distribution is obtained, and the decay polar and azimuthal angle distributions in the rest frame of the \(p\pi^{0}\) system are measured in the region of \(\Delta(1232)^+\) production, \(W < 1.4\) GeV.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 081802 (2016) 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.
