A. M. McGowan

Measurement of the Muon Antineutrino Double-Differential Cross Section for Quasielastic-like Scattering on Hydrocarbon at

We present double-differential measurements of antineutrino charged-current quasielastic scattering in the MINERvA detector. This study improves on a previous single-differential measurement by using updated reconstruction algorithms and interaction models and provides a complete description of observed muon kinematics in the form of a double-differential cross section with respect to muon transverse and longitudinal momentum. We include in our signal definition zero-meson final states arising from multinucleon interactions and from resonant pion production followed by pion absorption in the primary nucleus. We find that model agreement is considerably improved by a model tuned to MINERvA inclusive neutrino scattering data that incorporates nuclear effects such as weak nuclear screening and two-particle, two-hole enhancements.

E_\nu \sim 3.5

Charged-current ν_{μ} interactions on carbon, iron, and lead with a final state hadronic system of one or more protons with zero mesons are used to investigate the influence of the nuclear environment on quasielasticlike interactions. The transferred four-momentum squared to the target nucleus, Q^{2}, is reconstructed based on the kinematics of the leading proton, and differential cross sections versus Q^{2} and the cross-section ratios of iron, lead, and carbon to scintillator are measured for the first time in a single experiment. The measurements show a dependence on the atomic number. While the quasielasticlike scattering on carbon is compatible with predictions, the trends exhibited by scattering on iron and lead favor a prediction with intranuclear rescattering of hadrons accounted for by a conventional particle cascade treatment. These measurements help discriminate between different models of both initial state nucleons and final state interactions used in the neutrino oscillation experiments.

GeV

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

Direct Measurement of Nuclear Dependence of Charged Current Quasielasticlike Neutrino Interactions Using MINERvA

\bar{\nu}_e

Single neutral pion production by charged-current

appearance oscillation experiments. The differential cross sections for

\bar{\nu}_\mu

\pi^0

interactions on hydrocarbon at

momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed

\langle E_\nu \rangle =

\pi^0

3.6 GeV

and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the

Cross sections for neutrino and antineutrino induced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA

\pi^0