Single neutral pion production by charged-current [formula omitted] interactions on hydrocarbon at [formula omitted

T Le,L Rakotondravohitra,L Fields,N Tagg,H Da Motta,J Wolcott,A Bravar,A Higuera,D Ruterbories,M Kordosky,J Osta,H Schellman,V Paolone,A Bercellie,H Ray,L Aliaga,D Zhang,A Bodek,E Valencia,G Zavala,A Norrick,E Maher,R Gran,J Chvojka,B Eberly,H Gallagher,J Miller,J Devan,S Manly,O Altinok,K Hurtado,J Mousseau,R Fine,J Park,T Walton,A Butkevich,A M Mcgowan ,C J Solano Salinas ,S Dytman ,D A Martínez Caicedo ,M E Christy ,J T Sobczyk ,K S Mcfarland ,C Patrick ,D Schmitz ,J Félix ,R D Ransome ,J K Nelson ,Deborah A Harris ,J L Palomino ,M F Carneiro ,W K Brooks ,A M Gago ,C Marshall ,H Yepes-Ramírez ,B G Tice ,W A Mann ,Lu Ren ,P A Rodrigues ,J G Morfín ,G A Díaz ,G N Perdue ,C L Mcgivern ,Benjamin Ziemer

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2015.07.039

Abstract

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 ν¯e appearance oscillation experiments. The differential cross sections for π0 momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed π0 and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the π0 kinematics for this process.

Highlights

Neutrino- and antineutrino-induced interactions at energies of a few GeV are a proving ground for weak interaction phenomenology in nuclei [1]
0.7 GeV/c, final state interaction (FSI) effects have little influence on the π 0 momentum distribution, and both predictions are in good agreement with the data
For momenta below 0.3 GeV/c, inclusion of FSI gives an increased and shifted cross section relative to the no FSI case. This trend is exhibited by the data; GENIE calculations with and without FSI

Summary

Introduction

Neutrino- and antineutrino-induced interactions at energies of a few GeV are a proving ground for weak interaction phenomenology in nuclei [1]. Measurements of π 0 production by neutrinos have been made in deuterium bubble chambers [13,14,15,16] and more recently on nuclear targets in the 0.1–1 GeV energy range using the MiniBooNE detector [17] with a mineral oil (CH2) target, and using the SciBar detector in K2K and SciBooNE experiments [18,19] with plastic scintillator (CH) These recent measurements, as well as data on charged pion production [7,20] and neutral pion production [21] have been difficult for event generators and theoretical calculations to describe accurately [8,9,10,11]. Flux-integrated single differential cross sections as a function of π 0 momentum and production angle for events with a single observed π 0 and no π ± exiting the interaction nucleus have been measured and are compared to predictions from the GENIE [25], NuWro [26,27], and NEUT [28] event generators

Experiment

Event reconstruction and selection

Results and discussion

Conclusion