M. Datta

Measurement of Ratios of νμ Charged-Current Cross Sections on C, Fe, and Pb to CH at Neutrino Energies 2–20 GeV

We present measurements of ν(μ) charged-current cross section ratios on carbon, iron, and lead relative to a scintillator (CH) using the fine-grained MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. The measurements utilize events of energies 2<E(ν)<20 GeV, with ⟨E(ν)⟩ = 8 GeV, which have a reconstructed μ(-) scattering angle less than 17° to extract ratios of inclusive total cross sections as a function of neutrino energy E(ν) and flux-integrated differential cross sections with respect to the Bjorken scaling variable x. These results provide the first high-statistics direct measurements of nuclear effects in neutrino scattering using different targets in the same neutrino beam. Measured cross section ratios exhibit a relative depletion at low x and enhancement at large x. Both become more pronounced as the nucleon number of the target nucleus increases. The data are not reproduced by GENIE, a conventional neutrino-nucleus scattering simulation, or by the alternative models for the nuclear dependence of inelastic scattering that are considered.

Measurement of muon plus proton final states in νμ interactions on hydrocarbon at = 4.2 GeV

A study of charged-current muon neutrino scattering on hydrocarbon in which the final state includes a muon, at least one proton, and no pions is presented. Although this signature has the topology of neutrino quasielastic scattering from neutrons, the event sample contains contributions from quasielastic and inelastic processes where pions are absorbed in the nucleus. The analysis accepts events with muon production angles up to 70° and proton kinetic energies greater than 110 MeV. The cross section, when based completely on hadronic kinematics, is well described by a relativistic Fermi gas nuclear model including the neutrino event generator modeling for inelastic processes and particle transportation through the nucleus. This is in contrast to the quasielastic cross section based on muon kinematics, which is best described by an extended model that incorporates multinucleon correlations. As a result, this measurement guides the formulation of a complete description of neutrino-nucleus interactions that encompasses the hadronic as well as the leptonic aspects of this process.