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.
The $\nu_{e}+\bar{\nu}_{e}$ flux as a function of neutrino energy from the beam simulation for the data used in this analysis. The $\bar{\nu}_{e}$ fraction is shown separately to emphasize the dominance of $\nu_{e}$ in the sum.
Flux-integrated differential $\nu_{e}$ CCQE-like cross section versus electron energy.
Covariance matrix for flux-integrated differential $\nu_{e}$ CCQE-like cross section versus electron energy.
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