Measurement of Final-State Correlations in Neutrino Muon-Proton Mesonless Production on Hydrocarbon at ⟨Eν⟩=3  GeV

X.-G Lu,B Messerly,D Wark,J Chaves,S Henry,L Aliaga,T Cai,D Ruterbories,J Wolcott,A Weber,R Gran,H Da Motta,A Mislivec,A Ghosh,M Kordosky,S Jena,A Norrick,D Jena,M Wospakrik,R Galindo,R Fine,S Manly,F Akbar,J Kleykamp,D Rimal,V Paolone,E Valencia,L Fields,L Bellantoni,M Sultana,A Bodek,H Schellman,T Le,M Betancourt,J Mousseau,D Coplowe,H Gallagher,J Miller,A Olivier,A Bravar,B Yaeggy,O Altinok,D Naples,T Walton,E Maher,A Bercellie,Md Nuruzzaman ,Hang Su ,G N Perdue ,C N Nguyen ,J G Morfín ,A M Mcgowan ,M V Ascencio ,J Félix ,S Dytman ,M A Ramírez ,J T Sobczyk ,J K Nelson ,G A Díaz ,H S Budd ,D A Andrade ,M F Carneiro ,C Marshall ,A M Gago ,C Patrick ,Lu Ren ,K S Mcfarland ,Deborah A Harris ,C J Solano Salinas ,W A Mann ,R D Ransome ,P A Rodrigues

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.022504

Abstract

Final-state kinematic imbalances are measured in mesonless production of ν_{μ}+A→μ^{-}+p+X in the MINERvA tracker. Initial- and final-state nuclear effects are probed using the direction of the μ^{-}-p transverse momentum imbalance and the initial-state momentum of the struck neutron. Differential cross sections are compared to predictions based on current approaches to medium modeling. These models underpredict the cross section at intermediate intranuclear momentum transfers that generally exceed the Fermi momenta. As neutrino interaction models need to correctly incorporate the effect of the nucleus in order to predict neutrino energy resolution in oscillation experiments, this result points to a region of phase space where additional cross section strength is needed in current models, and demonstrates a new technique that would be suitable for use in fine-grained liquid argon detectors where the effect of the nucleus may be even larger.

Highlights

Final-state kinematic imbalances are measured in mesonless production of νμ þ A → μ− þ p þ X in the MINERvA tracker
Initial- and final-state nuclear effects are probed using the direction of the μ−-p transverse momentum imbalance and the initial-state momentum of the struck neutron
Differential cross sections are compared to predictions based on current approaches to medium modeling

Summary

Published by the American Physical Society

Space where additional cross section strength is needed in current models, and demonstrates a new technique that would be suitable for use in fine-grained liquid argon detectors where the effect of the nucleus may be even larger. In charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering there is an imbalance, δp⃗ , between the initial neutrino momentum and the sum of final-state lepton and hadron momenta as a result of nuclear effects. ESC protons are selected by requiring large dE=dx near the track end points This reduces the spread of the reconstructed pp to about 60% of its previous measurement [44], resulting in a resolution of ∼2% at 1 GeV=c, at the cost of a reduction of statistics to about 40% of the initial proton sample. The predicted background contributions mainly come from RES where the pion from baryon decay exits the nucleus

POT Normalized

Findings

Methods