Kinematic distributions from an inclusive sample of 1.41×106 charged-current νμ interactions on iron, obtained using the MINOS near detector exposed to a wide-band beam with peak flux at 3 GeV, are ...compared to a conventional treatment of neutrino scattering within a Fermi gas nucleus. Results are also used to guide the selection of a subsample enriched in quasielastic νμFe interactions, containing an estimated 123,000 quasielastic events of incident energies 1 < Eν < 8 GeV, with < Eν > = 2.79 GeV. Four additional subsamples representing topological and kinematic sideband regions to quasielastic scattering are also selected for the purpose of evaluating backgrounds. Comparisons using subsample distributions in four-momentum transfer Q2 show the Monte Carlo model to be inadequate at low Q2. Its shortcomings are remedied via inclusion of a Q2-dependent suppression function for baryon resonance production, developed from the data. A chi-square fit of the resulting Monte Carlo simulation to the shape of the Q2 distribution for the quasielastic-enriched sample is carried out with the axial-vector mass MA of the dipole axial-vector form factor of the neutron as a free parameter. Furthermore, the effective MA which best describes the data is 1.23+0.13-0.09(fit)+0.12-0.15(syst) GeV.
We have searched for sidereal variations in the rate of antineutrino interactions in the MINOS Near Detector. Using antineutrinos produced by the NuMI beam, we find no statistically significant ...sidereal modulation in the rate. When this result is placed in the context of the Standard Model Extension theory we are able to place upper limits on the coefficients defining the theory. These limits are used in combination with the results from an earlier analysis of MINOS neutrino data to further constrain the coefficients.
A sample of 1.53 x 10 super(9) cosmic-ray-induced single muon events has been recorded at 225 m water equivalent using the MINOS near detector. The underground muon rate is observed to be highly ...correlated with the effective atmospheric temperature. The coefficient alpha sub(T), relating the change in the muon rate to the change in the vertical effective temperature, is determined to be 0.428 + or - 0.003(stat.) + or - 0.059(syst.). An alternative description is provided by the weighted effective temperature, introduced to account for the differences in the temperature profile and muon flux as a function of zenith angle. Using the latter estimation of temperature, the coefficient is determined to be 0.352 + or - 0.003(stat.) + or - 0.046(syst.).