Identification of nuclear effects in neutrino-carbon interactions at low three-momentum transfer

The MINERvA collaboration Rodrigues, P.A. ; Demgen, J. ; Miltenberger, E. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 116 (2016) 071802, 2016.
Inspire Record 1405301 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.76976

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.

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Measurement of Partonic Nuclear Effects in Deep-Inelastic Neutrino Scattering using MINERvA

The MINERvA collaboration Mousseau, J. ; Wospakrik, M. ; Aliaga, L. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.D 93 (2016) 071101, 2016.
Inspire Record 1416818 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.77044

The MINERvA collaboration reports a novel study of neutrino-nucleus charged-current deep inelastic scattering (DIS) using the same neutrino beam incident on targets of polystyrene, graphite, iron, and lead. Results are presented as ratios of C, Fe, and Pb to CH. The ratios of total DIS cross sections as a function of neutrino energy and flux-integrated differential cross sections as a function of the Bjorken scaling variable x are presented in the neutrino-energy range of 5 - 50 GeV. Good agreement is found between the data and predicted ratios, based on charged-lepton nucleus scattering, at medium x and low neutrino energies. However, the data rate appears depleted in the vicinity of the nuclear shadowing region, x < 0.1. This apparent deficit, reflected in the DIS cross-section ratio at high neutrino energy , is consistent with previous MINERvA observations and with the predicted onset of nuclear shadowing with the the axial-vector current in neutrino scattering.

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Measurement of $K^{+}$ production in charged-current $\nu_{\mu}$ interactions

The MINERvA collaboration Marshall, C.M. ; Aliaga, L. ; Altinok, O. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.D 94 (2016) 012002, 2016.
Inspire Record 1446753 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.78539

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\%.

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Single neutral pion production by charged-current $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ interactions on hydrocarbon at $\langle E_\nu \rangle = $ 3.6 GeV

The MINERvA collaboration Le, T. ; Palomino, J.L. ; Aliaga, L. ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 749 (2015) 130-136, 2015.
Inspire Record 1351216 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.73317

Single neutral pion production via muon antineutrino charged-current interactions in plastic scintillator (CH) is studied using the \minerva detector exposed to the NuMI low-energy, wideband antineutrino beam at Fermilab. Measurement of this process constrains models of neutral pion production in nuclei, which is important because the neutral-current analog is a background for $\bar{\nu}_e$ appearance oscillation experiments. The differential cross sections for $\pi^0$ momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed $\pi^0$ and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the $\pi^0$ kinematics for this process.

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Measurement of electron neutrino quasielastic and quasielastic-like scattering on hydrocarbon at $\langle E_{\nu} \rangle $ = 3.6 GeV

The MINERvA collaboration Wolcott, J. ; Aliaga, L. ; Altinok, O. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 116 (2016) 081802, 2016.
Inspire Record 1393997 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.75538

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.

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