Flux-averaged Cross Research Articles

First Simultaneous Measurement of Differential Muon-Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Sections on Argon for Final States with and without Protons Using MicroBooNE Data.

We report the first double-differential neutrino-argon cross section measurement made simultaneously for final states with and without protons for the inclusive muon neutrino charged-current interaction channel. The proton kinematics of this channel are further explored with a differential cross section measurement as a function of the leading proton's kinetic energy that extends across the detection threshold. These measurements use data collected with the MicroBooNE detector from 6.4×10^{20} protons on target from the Fermilab booster neutrino beam with a mean neutrino energy of ∼0.8 GeV. Extensive data-driven model validation utilizing the conditional constraint formalism is employed. This motivates enlarging the uncertainties with an empirical reweighting approach to minimize the possibility of extracting biased cross section results. The extracted nominal flux-averaged cross sections are compared to widely used event generator predictions revealing severe mismodeling of final states without protons for muon neutrino charged-current interactions, possibly from insufficient treatment of final state interactions. These measurements provide a wealth of new information useful for improving event generators which will enhance the sensitivity of precision measurements in neutrino experiments.

First Measurement of Quasielastic Λ Baryon Production in Muon Antineutrino Interactions in the MicroBooNE Detector.

We present the first measurement of the cross section of Cabibbo-suppressed Λ baryon production, using data collected with the MicroBooNE detector when exposed to the neutrinos from the main injector beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The data analyzed correspond to 2.2×10^{20} protons on target running in neutrino mode, and 4.9×10^{20} protons on target running in anti-neutrino mode. An automated selection is combined with hand scanning, with the former identifying five candidate Λ production events when the signal was unblinded, consistent with the GENIE prediction of 5.3±1.1 events. Several scanners were employed, selecting between three and five events, compared with a prediction from a blinded MonteCarlo simulation study of 3.7±1.0 events. Restricting the phase space to only include Λ baryons that decay above MicroBooNE's detection thresholds, we obtain a flux averaged cross section of 2.0_{-1.7}^{+2.2}×10^{-40} cm^{2}/Ar, where statistical and systematic uncertainties are combined.

Assessing the theory-data tension in neutrino-induced charged pion production: The effect of final-state nucleon distortion

Pion production on nuclei constitutes a significant part of the total cross section in experiments involving few-GeV neutrinos. Combined analyses of data on deuterium and heavier nuclei points to tensions between the bubble-chamber data and the data of the $\mathrm{MINER}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{A}$ experiment, which are often ascribed to unspecified nuclear effects. In experimental analysis use is made of approximate treatments of nuclear dynamics, usually in a Fermi gas approach with classical treatments of the reaction mechanism, and fits are often performed by simply rescaling cross sections. To understand the origin of these tensions, check the validity of approximations, and to further advance the description of neutrino pion production on nuclei, a microscopic quantum mechanical framework is needed to compute nuclear matrix elements. We use the local approximation to the relativistic distorted wave impulse approximation to calculate the nuclear matrix elements. We include the distortion of wave functions of the final-state nucleon in a real energy-dependent potential. We compare results with and without distortion. To perform this comparison under conditions relevant to neutrino experiments, we compute cross sections for the $\mathrm{MINER}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{A}$ and T2K charged-pion production datasets. The inclusion of nucleon distortion leads to a reduction of the cross section up to 10%, but to no significant change in shape of the flux-averaged cross sections. Results with and without distortion compare favorably to experimental data, with the exception of the low-${Q}^{2}$ $\mathrm{MINER}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{A}$ ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}$ data. We point out that hydrogen target data from BEBC is also overpredicted at low ${Q}^{2}$, and the data-model discrepancy is similar in shape and magnitude as what is found in comparison to $\mathrm{MINER}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{A}$ data. Including nucleon distortion alone cannot explain the overprediction of low-${Q}^{2}$ cross sections measured by $\mathrm{MINER}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{A}$. The similar overprediction of BEBC data on hydrogen means that it is impossible to ascribe this discrepancy solely to a nuclear effect. Axial form factors might not be constrained in a satisfactory way by the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories (ANL/BNL) data alone. Axial couplings and their ${Q}^{2}$ dependence should ideally be derived from more precise data on hydrogen and deuterium. Nuclear matrix elements should be tested with e.g., electron scattering data for which nucleon level physics is better constrained.

Measurement of neutral current single π0 production on argon with the MicroBooNE detector

We report the first measurement of π0 production in neutral current (NC) interactions on argon with average neutrino energy of ≲1 GeV. We use data from the MicroBooNE detector’s 85 metric tons active volume liquid argon time projection chamber situated in Fermilab’s Booster Neutrino Beam and exposed to 5.89×1020 protons on target for this measurement. Measurements of NC π0 events are reported for two exclusive event topologies without charged pions. Those include a topology with two photons from the decay of the π0 and one proton and a topology with two photons and zero protons. Flux-averaged cross sections for each exclusive topology and for their semi-inclusive combination are extracted (efficiency correcting for two-plus proton final states), and the results are compared to predictions from the genie, neut, and nuwro neutrino event generators. We measure cross sections of 1.243±0.185(syst)±0.076(stat), 0.444±0.098±0.047, and 0.624±0.131±0.075 [10−38 cm2/Ar] for the semi-inclusive NCπ0, exclusive NCπ0+1p, and exclusive NCπ0+0p processes, respectively.7 MoreReceived 19 May 2022Accepted 12 December 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.012004Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasNeutrino interactionsNucleus-neutrino interactionsParticles & Fields

Radiative (anti)neutrino energy spectra from muon, pion, and kaon decays

To describe low-energy (anti)neutrino fluxes in modern coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments as well as high-energy fluxes in precision-frontier projects such as the Enhanced NeUtrino BEams from kaon Tagging (ENUBET) and the Neutrinos from STORed Muons (nuSTORM), we evaluate (anti)neutrino energy spectra from radiative muon (μ−→e−ν¯eνμ(γ),μ+→e+νeν¯μ(γ)), pion πℓ2 (π−→μ−ν¯μ(γ),π+→μ+νμ(γ)), and kaon Kℓ2 (K−→μ−ν¯μ(γ),K+→μ+νμ(γ)) decays. We compare detailed O(α) distributions to the well-known tree-level results, investigate electron-mass corrections and provide energy spectra in analytical form. Radiative corrections introduce continuous and divergent spectral components near the endpoint, on top of the monochromatic tree-level meson-decay spectra, which can change the flux-averaged cross section at 6×10−5 level for the scattering on Ar40 nucleus with (anti)neutrinos from the pion decay at rest. Radiative effects modify the expected (anti)neutrino fluxes from the muon decay around the peak region by 3−4 permille, which is a precision goal for next-generation artificial neutrino sources.

First Measurement of Energy-Dependent Inclusive Muon Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Sections on Argon with the MicroBooNE Detector.

We report a measurement of the energy-dependent total charged-current cross section σ(E_{ν}) for inclusive muon neutrinos scattering on argon, as well as measurements of flux-averaged differential cross sections as a function of muon energy and hadronic energy transfer (ν). Data corresponding to 5.3×10^{19} protons on target of exposure were collected using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber located in the Fermilab booster neutrino beam with a mean neutrino energy of approximately 0.8GeV. The mapping between the true neutrino energy E_{ν} and reconstructed neutrino energy E_{ν}^{rec} and between the energy transfer ν and reconstructed hadronic energy E_{had}^{rec} are validated by comparing the data and MonteCarlo (MC) predictions. In particular, the modeling of the missing hadronic energy and its associated uncertainties are verified by a new method that compares the E_{had}^{rec} distributions between data and a MC prediction after constraining the reconstructed muon kinematic distributions, energy, and polar angle to those of data. The success of this validation gives confidence that the missing energy in the MicroBooNE detector is well modeled and underpins first-time measurements of both the total cross section σ(E_{ν}) and the differential cross section dσ/dν on argon.

Cabibbo suppressed single pion production off the nucleon induced by antineutrinos

In this work we study the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}\ensuremath{\pi}$ and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\ensuremath{\pi}$ production off free nucleons driven by the strangeness-changing weak charged current. We calculate the total cross sections for all possible channels and estimate the flux-averaged total cross sections for experiments like MiniBooNE, SciBooNE, T2K, and Minerva. The model is based on the lowest order effective SU(3) chiral Lagrangians in the presence of an external weak charged current and contains Born and the lowest-lying decuplet resonant mechanisms that can contribute to these reaction channels. We also compare and discuss our results with others following similar and very different approaches.

Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector

We present a measurement of the combined νe+ν¯e flux-averaged charged-current inclusive cross section on argon using data from the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (lartpc) at Fermilab. Using the off-axis flux from the NuMI beam, MicroBooNE has reconstructed 214 candidate νe+ν¯e interactions with an estimated exposure of 2.4×1020 protons on target. Given the estimated purity of 38.6%, this implies the observation of 80 νe+ν¯e events in argon, the largest such sample to date. The analysis includes the first demonstration of a fully automated application of a dE/dx-based particle discrimination technique of electron- and photon-induced showers in a lartpc neutrino detector. The main background for this first νe analysis is cosmic ray contamination. Significantly higher purity is expected in underground detectors, as well as with next-generation reconstruction algorithms. We measure the νe+ν¯e flux-averaged charged-current total cross section to be 6.84±1.51(stat)±2.33(sys)×10−39 cm2/nucleon, for neutrino energies above 250 MeV and an average neutrino flux energy of 905 MeV when this threshold is applied. The measurement is sensitive to neutrino events where the final state electron momentum is above 48 MeV/c, includes the entire angular phase space of the electron, and is in agreement with the theoretical predictions from genie and nuwro. This measurement is also the first demonstration of electron-neutrino reconstruction in a surface lartpc in the presence of cosmic-ray backgrounds, which will be a crucial task for surface experiments like those that comprise the short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab.10 MoreReceived 11 January 2021Accepted 21 June 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.052002Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasNeutrino interactionsTechniquesNeutrino detectorsParticle interactionsTime-projection chambersParticles & Fields

Unified model of nucleon elastic form factors and implications for neutrino-oscillation experiments

Precise knowledge of the nucleon's axial-current form factors is crucial for modeling GeV-scale neutrino-nucleus interactions. Unfortunately, the axial form factor remains insufficiently constrained to meet the precision requirements of upcoming long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiments. This work studies the nucleon's axial and vector form factors using the light-front approach to build a quark-diquark model of the nucleon with an explicit pion cloud. The light-front wave functions in both the quark and pion-baryon Fock spaces are first calibrated to existing experimental information on the nucleon's electromagnetic form factors and then used to predict the axial form factor. The resulting squared charge radius of the axial pseudovector form factor is predicted to be ${r}_{A}^{2}=0.29\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fm}}^{2}$, where the small error accounts for the model's parametric uncertainty. We use our form factor results to explore the (quasi)elastic scattering of neutrinos by (nuclei)nucleons, with the result that the widely implemented dipole ansatz is an inadequate approximation of the full form factor for modeling both processes. The approximation leads to a 5%--10% overestimation of the total cross section, depending on the (anti)neutrino energy. We project overestimations of similar size in the flux-averaged cross sections for the upcoming DUNE long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment.

Measurement of neutrino-induced neutral-current coherent π0 production in the NOvA near detector

The cross section of neutrino-induced neutral-current coherent π0 production on a carbon-dominated target is measured in the NOvA near detector. This measurement uses a narrow-band neutrino beam with an average neutrino energy of 2.7 GeV, which is of interest to ongoing and future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. The measured, flux-averaged cross section is σ=13.8±0.9(stat)±2.3(syst)×10−40 cm2/nucleus, consistent with model prediction. This result is the most precise measurement of neutral-current coherent π0 production in the few-GeV neutrino energy region.4 MoreReceived 5 February 2019Revised 22 June 2020Accepted 23 June 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.012004Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasElectroweak interactionNeutrino interactionsNucleus-neutrino interactionsPhysical SystemsNeutrinosParticles & Fields

Supernova neutrino scattering off Gadolinium odd isotopes in water Cherenkov detectors

In this work the supernova neutrino (SN) charged-current interactions with Gd odd isotopes (A=155 and 157) are studied. We use measured spectra and the quasiparticle-phonon model (MQPM) to calculate the charged current response of odd Gd isotopes to supernova neutrinos. Flux-averaged cross sections are obtained considering quasi-thermal neutrino spectra.

Measurement of neutrino and antineutrino neutral-current quasielasticlike interactions on oxygen by detecting nuclear deexcitation γ rays

Neutrino- and antineutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic-like interactions are measured at Super-Kamiokande using nuclear de-excitation $\gamma$-rays to identify signal-like interactions in data from a $14.94 \ (16.35)\times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target exposure of the T2K neutrino (antineutrino) beam. The measured flux-averaged cross sections on oxygen nuclei are $\langle \sigma_{\nu {\rm -NCQE}} \rangle = 1.70 \pm 0.17 ({\rm stat.}) ^{+ {\rm 0.51}}_{- {\rm 0.38}} ({\rm syst.}) \times 10^{-38} \ {\rm cm^2/oxygen}$ with a flux-averaged energy of 0.82 GeV and $\langle \sigma_{\bar{\nu} {\rm -NCQE}} \rangle = 0.98 \pm 0.16 ({\rm stat.}) ^{+ {\rm 0.26}}_{- {\rm 0.19}} ({\rm syst.}) \times 10^{-38} \ {\rm cm^2/oxygen}$ with a flux-averaged energy of 0.68 GeV, for neutrinos and antineutrinos, respectively. These results are the most precise to date, and the antineutrino result is the first cross section measurement of this channel. They are compared with various theoretical predictions. The impact on evaluation of backgrounds to searches for supernova relic neutrinos at present and future water Cherenkov detectors is also discussed.

First measurement of the cross section for νμ and ν¯μ induced single charged pion production on argon using ArgoNeuT

We report on the first cross section measurement of charged-current single charged pion production by neutrinos and antineutrinos on argon. This analysis was performed using the ArgoNeuT detector exposed to the NuMI beam at Fermilab. The measurements are presented as functions of muon momentum, muon angle, pion angle, and angle between muon and pion. The flux-averaged cross sections are measured to be $2.7\pm0.5(stat)\pm0.5(syst) \times 10^{-37} \textrm{cm}^{2}/\textrm{Ar}$ for neutrinos at a mean energy of 9.6 GeV and $8.4\pm0.9(stat)^{+1.0}_{-0.8}(syst) \times 10^{-38} \textrm{cm}^{2}/\textrm{Ar}$ for antineutrinos at a mean energy of 3.6 GeV with the charged pion momentum above 100 MeV/$c$. The results are compared with several model predictions.

Supernova neutrino scattering off Gadolinium even isotopes in water Cherenkov detectors

Neutrinos in water can be detected thanks to several reactions. The most important one is the inverse beta decay ν̄e + p → n + e+. The detection of 2.2 MeV γ from neutron capture on free protons is very difficult. The feasibility of Gadolinium (Gd) doping in water Cherenkov detectors essentially reduces background signals and enhances the sensitivity to neutrino detection. In this work the supernova neutrino charged-current interactions with the most abundant Gd even isotopes (A=156,158 and 160) are studied. We use measured spectra and the quasiparticle random phase approximation to calculate the charged current response of Gd isotopes to supernova neutrinos. Flux-averaged cross sections are obtained considering quasi-thermal neutrino spectra.

First measurement of the νμ charged-current cross section on a water target without pions in the final state

This paper reports the first differential measurement of the charged-current interaction cross section of $\nu_{\mu}$ on water with no pions in the final state. This flux-averaged measurement has been made using the T2K experiment's off-axis near detector, and is reported in doubly-differential bins of muon momentum and angle. The flux-averaged total cross section in a restricted region of phase space was found to be $ \sigma= (0.95 \pm 0.08 (\mbox{stat}) \pm 0.06 (\mbox{det. syst.}) \pm 0.04(\mbox{model syst.}) \pm{} 0.08(\mbox{flux}) ) \times 10^{-38} \mbox{cm}^2$ per n.

Quasielastic production of polarized hyperons in antineutrino-nucleon reactions

We have studied the differential cross section as well as the longitudinal and perpendicular components of polarization of final hyperon($\Lambda$,$\Sigma$) produced in the antineutrino induced quasielastic charged current reactions on nucleon and nuclear targets. The nucleon-hyperon transition form factors are determined from the experimental data on quasielastic $(\Delta S =0)$ charged current (anti)neutrino--nucleon scattering and the semileptonic decay of neutron and hyperons assuming G--invariance, T--invariance and SU(3) symmetry. The vector transition form factors are obtained in terms of nucleon electromagnetic form factors for which various parameterizations available in literature have been used. A dipole parameterization for the axial vector form factor and the pseudoscalar transition form factor derived in terms of axial vector form factor assuming PCAC and GT relation extended to strangeness sector have been used in numerical evaluations. The flux averaged cross section and polarization observables corresponding to CERN Gargamelle experiment have been calculated for quasielastic hyperon production and found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental observations. The numerical results for the flux averaged differential cross section$\frac{d\sigma}{dQ^2}$ and longitudinal(perpendicular) polarization $P_L(Q^2)(P_P(Q^2))$ relevant for the antineutrino fluxes of MINER$\nu$A, MicroBooNE, and T2K experiments have been presented. This will be useful in interpreting future experimental results on production cross sections and polarization observables from the experiments on the quasielastic production of hyperons induced by antineutrinos and explore the possibility of determining the axial vector and pseudoscalar form factors in the strangeness sector.

Measurement of Coherent π^{+} Production in Low Energy Neutrino-Carbon Scattering.

We report the first measurement of the flux-averaged cross section for charged current coherent $\pi^{+}$ production on carbon for neutrino energies less than 1.5 GeV to a restricted final state phase space region in the T2K near detector, ND280. Comparisons are made with predictions from the Rein-Sehgal coherent production model and the model by Alvarez-Ruso {\it et al.}, the latter representing the first implementation of an instance of the new class of microscopic coherent models in a neutrino interaction Monte Carlo event generator. This results contradicts the null results reported by K2K and SciBooNE in a similar neutrino energy region.

Charged-current inclusive neutrino cross sections in the SuperScaling model

SuperScaling model (SuSA) predictions to neutrino-induced charged-current π+ production in the Δ-resonance region are explored under MiniBooNE experimental conditions. The SuSA charged-current π+ results are in good agreement with data on neutrino flux-averaged double-differential cross sections. The SuSA model for quasielastic scattering and its extension to the pion production region are used for predictions of charged-current inclusive neutrino- nucleus cross sections. The contribution of two-particle-two-hole vector meson-exchange current excitations is also considered within a fully relativistic model. Results are compared with the T2K experimental data for inclusive scattering.

Cosmogenic-neutron activation ofTeO2and implications for neutrinoless double-βdecay experiments

Flux-averaged cross sections for cosmogenic-neutron activation of natural tellurium were measured using a neutron beam containing neutrons of kinetic energies up to $\sim$800 MeV, and having an energy spectrum similar to that of cosmic-ray neutrons at sea-level. Analysis of the radioisotopes produced reveals that 110mAg will be a dominant contributor to the cosmogenic-activation background in experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 130Te, such as CUORE and SNO+. An estimate of the cosmogenic-activation background in the CUORE experiment has been obtained using the results of this measurement and cross-section measurements of proton activation of tellurium. Additionally, the measured cross sections in this work are also compared with results from semi-empirical cross-section calculations.

Effects of density-dependent weak form factors on neutral-current neutrino (antineutrino)-neucleus scattering in the quasi-elastic region

We study the effects of density-dependent weak vector form factors on the inclusive neutral-current--neutrino (antineutrino)-nucleus scattering in the quasi-elastic region within the framework of a relativistic single-particle model. The density-dependent weak form factors are obtained from a quark-meson coupling model. The density-dependence effects are studied separately in protons and neutrons participating in the reactions, in each response cross section, and with regard to asymmetry. These density effects reduce the cross section at high densities and show different behavior with regard to asymmetry. Furthermore we calculate flux-averaged differential cross sections and compare them with the experimental data.