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 $\nu_\mu$ interactions is combined with muon kinematics to permit separation of the quasielastic and $\Delta$(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 $\Delta$ 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.
The $\nu_\mu$ flux, in units 10$^{-5}$ / m$^{2}$ / P.O.T. / GeV.
Measured cross section per nucleon, in units 10$^{-42}$ cm$^2$ / GeV$^2$.
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.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a full-coverage air shower detector located at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Observatory (Tibet, People's Republic of China, 4300 m a.s.l.). The high altitude, combined with the full-coverage technique, allows the detection of extensive air showers in a wide energy range and offer the possibility of measuring the cosmic ray proton plus helium spectrum down to the TeV region, where direct balloon/space-borne measurements are available. The detector has been in stable data taking in its full configuration from November 2007 to February 2013. In this paper the measurement of the cosmic ray proton plus helium energy spectrum is presented in the region 3-300 TeV by analyzing the full collected data sample. The resulting spectral index is $\gamma = -2.64 \pm 0.01$. These results demonstrate the possibility of performing an accurate measurement of the spectrum of light elements with a ground based air shower detector.
Proton plus helium flux measured at $5.0 \times 10^4$ GeV.
Light component energy spectrum measured by the ARGO-YBJ experiment by using the full 2008-2012 data sample in each energy bin.
The largest sample ever recorded of $\numub$ charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE, $\numub + p \to \mup + n$) candidate events is used to produce the minimally model-dependent, flux-integrated double-differential cross section $\frac{d^{2}\sigma}{dT_\mu d\uz}$ for $\numub$ incident on mineral oil. This measurement exploits the unprecedented statistics of the MiniBooNE anti-neutrino mode sample and provides the most complete information of this process to date. Also given to facilitate historical comparisons are the flux-unfolded total cross section $\sigma(E_\nu)$ and single-differential cross section $\frac{d\sigma}{d\qsq}$ on both mineral oil and on carbon by subtracting the $\numub$ CCQE events on hydrogen. The observed cross section is somewhat higher than the predicted cross section from a model assuming independently-acting nucleons in carbon with canonical form factor values. The shape of the data are also discrepant with this model. These results have implications for intra-nuclear processes and can help constrain signal and background processes for future neutrino oscillation measurements.
Flux (neutrinos /cm^2/Protons on Target/50 MeV).
The MiniBooNE $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ CCQE double-differential cross section on mineral oil, together with the shape uncertainty, in units of fb/GeV $(10^{-39}~\mbox{cm}^2/\mbox{GeV})$. Data is given in 0.1 GeV bins of $T_\mu$ (columns) and 0.1 bins of $\,\textrm{cos}\, \theta_\mu$ (rows). Not included in the table is the total normalization uncertainty of 13.0$\%$.
CCQE-like background in units of fb/GeV $(10^{-39}~\mbox{cm}^2)/\mbox{GeV}$ to the MiniBooNE $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ CCQE double-differential cross section on mineral oil. In this configuration, the hydrogen scattering component is treated as signal and is not included in the CCQE-like background.
Forum