Using Neutrinos as a Probe of the High-x[sub Bj] Region

Abstract

Neutrino scattering experiments have been studying the DIS region, including high‐xBj, for over 40 years. From the Gargamelle experiments in the early 70’s, through the subsequent bubble chamber and electronic detector experiments neutrino scattering experiments have steadily accumulated increasing statistics and minimized their systematic errors. Recent completed studies of high‐xBj with neutrinos are from the the NuTeV experiment off Fe in the TeVatron neutrino beam and both the CHORUS experiment off Pb and the NOMAD experiment off C/Al in the CERN neutrino beam. The significant factor here is that all recent high‐statistics neutrino experiments have been off high‐A nucleus targets. The unknown nuclear effects mask the high‐xBj behavior of the bare neutrino‐nucleon interaction. In order to address this problem, current on‐going studies have shifted to the Main Injector based NuMI facility at Fermilab and the MINERνA experiment. This experiment is a collaboration of elementary‐particle and nuclear physicists planning to measure absolute exclusive and inclusive cross‐sections and nuclear effects in ν ‐ A interactions as well as a systematic study of the resonance‐DIS transition region and DIS with an emphasis on the extraction of high‐xBj parton distribution functions. The MINERνA experiment also plans to propose the use of a liquid hydrogen target to go after a measurement of d/u quarks at high‐xBj.