We report a measurement of the electroweak parameters sin2θw and ϱ based on the ratios of neutral current to charged current events measured in the Fermilab narrow-band neutrino beam at energies of 30–240 GeV. The data are fully corrected for radiative effects, heavy-quark production, and other effects. The best value for sin2θw obtained, sin2θw=0.239±0.011, is consistent with the most recent values fromW andZ production, as well as from other neutrino experiments.
We have found 122 charmed-particle decays among 3855 neutrino interactions located in the fiducial volume of a hybrid emulsion spectrometer installed in the Fermilab wide-band neutrino beam. We obtain an average relative charmed-particle production cross section of σ(ν μ → c μ − ) σ(ν μ →μ − ) =4.9 −0.6 +0.7 % , at an average neutrino energy of 22 GeV. We also obtain a production rate of σ(ν μ → c c ν μ ) σ(ν μ →ν μ ) =0.13 −0.11 +0.31 % , if we assume that there was an undetected muon, a limit of σ(ν μ → c c μ − ) σ(ν μ → c μ − )<3% (90% CL ) can be obtained. Other cross section ratios and limits are also presented.
We have measured muon-proton deep inelastic scattering in the range 0.4<q2<3.6 (GeV/c)2. The data are consistent with muon-electron universality, and if the ratio ρ=νW2(μ−p)νW2(e−p) is fitted with the form ρ=N(1+q2Λ2)−2, we obtain N=0.997±0.043 and Λ−2=+0.006±0.016 (GeV/c)2. This result establishes that |Λ|>~5.1 GeV/c with 95% confidence.
We report results from a search for neutrino-induced neutral current (NC) resonant $\Delta$(1232) baryon production followed by $\Delta$ radiative decay, with a $\langle0.8\rangle$~GeV neutrino beam. Data corresponding to MicroBooNE's first three years of operations (6.80$\times$10$^{20}$ protons on target) are used to select single-photon events with one or zero protons and without charged leptons in the final state ($1\gamma1p$ and $1\gamma0p$, respectively). The background is constrained via an in-situ high-purity measurement of NC $\pi^0$ events, made possible via dedicated $2\gamma1p$ and $2\gamma0p$ selections. A total of 16 and 153 events are observed for the $1\gamma1p$ and $1\gamma0p$ selections, respectively, compared to a constrained background prediction of $20.5 \pm 3.65 \text{(sys.)} $ and $145.1 \pm 13.8 \text{(sys.)} $ events. The data lead to a bound on an anomalous enhancement of the normalization of NC $\Delta$ radiative decay of less than $2.3$ times the predicted nominal rate for this process at the 90% confidence level (CL). The measurement disfavors a candidate photon interpretation of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess as a factor of $3.18$ times the nominal NC $\Delta$ radiative decay rate at the 94.8% CL, in favor of the nominal prediction, and represents a greater than $50$-fold improvement over the world's best limit on single-photon production in NC interactions in the sub-GeV neutrino energy range
The structure of the nucleon is studied by means of deep-inelastic neutrino-nucleon scattering at high energies through the weak neutral current. The neutrino-nucleon scattering events were observed in a 340-metric-ton fine-grained calorimeter exposed to a narrow-band (dichromatic) neutrino beam at Fermilab. The data sample after analysis cuts consists of 9200 charged-current and 3000 neutral-current neutrino and antineutrino events. The neutral-current valence and sea nucleon structure functions are extracted from the x distribution reconstructed from the measured angle and energy of the recoil-hadron shower and the incident narrow-band neutrino-beam energy. They are compared to those extracted from charged-current events analyzed as neutral-current events. It is shown that the nucleon structure is independent of the type of neutrino interaction, which confirms an important aspect of the standard model. The data are also used to determine the value of sin2θW=0.238±0.013±0.015±0.010 for a single-parameter fit, where the first error is from statistical sources, the second from experimental systematic errors, and the third from estimated theoretical errors.
We report on the first observation of open charm production in neutral current deep inelastic neutrino scattering as seen in the NuTeV detector at Fermilab. The production rate is shown to be consistent with a pure gluon-$% Z^{0}$ boson production model, and the observed level of charm production is used to determine the effective charm mass. As part of our analysis, we also obtain a new measurement for the proton-nucleon charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s}=38.8$ GeV.
The SciBooNE Collaboration reports inclusive neutral current neutral pion production by a muon neutrino beam on a polystyrene target (C8H8). We obtain (7.7 \pm 0.5(stat.) \pm 0.5 (sys.)) x 10^(-2) as the ratio of the neutral current neutral pion production to total charged current cross section; the mean energy of neutrinos producing detected neutral pions is 1.1 GeV. The result agrees with the Rein-Sehgal model implemented in our neutrino interaction simulation program with nuclear effects. The spectrum shape of the neutral pion momentum and angle agree with the model. We also measure the ratio of the neutral current coherent pion production to total charged current cross section to be (0.7 \pm 0.4) x 10^(-2).
Inelastic scattering of 490 GeV μ + from deuterium and xenon nuclei has been studied for x Bj > s .001. The ratio of the xenon/deuterium cross section per nucleon is observed to vary with x Bj , with a depletion in the kinematic range 0.001 < x Bj < 0.025 which exhibits no significant Q 2 dependence. An electromagnetic calorimeter was used to verify the radiative corrections.
Longitudinal and transverse momentum spectra of final state hadrons produced in deep-inelastic muon-deuterium scattering at incident muon energy of 490 GeV have been measured up to a hadronic center of mass energy of 30 GeV. The longitudinal distributions agree well with data from earlier muon-nucleon scattering experiments; these distributions tend to increase in steepness as the center of mass energy increases. Comparisons with e + e − data at comparable center of mass energies indicate slight differences. The transverse momentum distributions show an increase in mean p T 2 with an increase in the center of mass energy.
Results on the production of charged hadrons in muon-deuteron and muon-xenon interactions are presented. The data were taken with the E665 spectrometer, which was exposed to the 490 GeV muon beam of the Tevatron at Fermilab. The use of a streamer chamber as vertex detector provides nearly 4π acceptance for charged particles. The μD data are compared with the μXe data in terms of multiplicity distributions, average multiplicities, forward-backward multiplicity correlations, rapidity and transverse momentum distributions and of two-particle rapidity correlations of charged hadrons. The data cover a range of invariant hadronic massesW from 8 to 30 GeV.