Paper

Study of quasielastic scattering using charged-current nu_mu-iron interactions in the MINOS Near Detector

Torretta, D, Graf, N, Thomson, M A, Kreymer, A, Walding, J J, Gran, R, Toner, R, Moore, C D, Wojcicki, S G, Hartnell, J, Devan, A V, Hahn, S R, Irwin, G M, Newman, H B, Blake, A, Vahle, P, Zwaska, R, Bogert, D, Kordosky, M, Miller, W H, Grzelak, K, Bock, G J, Phan-Budd, S, Paley, J, Jensen, D, Timmons, A, Qiu, X, Medeiros, M M, Pfutzner, M, Viren, B, Diwan, M V, Sharma, R, Schneps, J, Ling, J, Barr, G, Poonthottathil, N, Castromonte, C M, Pawloski, G, Mualem, L, Radovic, A, Gouffon, P, Mayer, N, de Jong, J K, Escobar, C O, Habig, A, Cronin-Hennessy, D, Litchfield, P J, White, C, Holin, A, Gallagher, H R, McGivern, C, Gomes, R A, Mishra, S R, Tognini, S C, Kasahara, S M S, Connor, J O, Orchanian, M, Musser, J, Nowak, J A, Nichol, R J, Hatcher, R, Lang, K, Nelson, J K, Weber, A, Sousa, A, Mehdiyev, R, Hylen, J, Pahlka, R B, Sanchez, M C, Urheim, J, Whitehead, L H, Messier, M D, Isvan, Z, Rubin, H A, Goodman, M C, Frohne, M V, Perch, A, Marshak, M L, James, C, Rosenfeld, C, Adamson, P, S Moed Sher, Naples, D, Kafka, T, Rebel, B, Koizumi, G, Schreckenberger, A, Cao, S V, Mann, W A, Aurisano, A, Coelho, J A B, Anghel, I, Talaga, R L, Bishai, M, Lucas, P, Patterson, R B, Meier, J

2014

Overview

Kinematic distributions from an inclusive sample of 1.41 x 10^6 charged-current nu_mu interactions on iron, obtained using the MINOS Near Detector exposed to a wide-band beam with peak flux at 3 GeV, are compared to a conventional treatment of neutrino scattering within a Fermi gas nucleus. Results are used to guide the selection of a subsample enriched in quasielastic nu_mu Fe interactions, containing an estimated 123,000 quasielastic events of incident energies 1 < E_nu < 8 GeV, with = 2.79 GeV. Four additional subsamples representing topological and kinematic sideband regions to quasielastic scattering are also selected for the purpose of evaluating backgrounds. Comparisons using subsample distributions in four-momentum transfer Q^2 show the Monte Carlo model to be inadequate at low Q^2. Its shortcomings are remedied via inclusion of a Q^2-dependent suppression function for baryon resonance production, developed from the data. A chi-square fit of the resulting Monte Carlo simulation to the shape of the Q^2 distribution for the quasielastic-enriched sample is carried out with the axial-vector mass M_A of the dipole axial-vector form factor of the neutron as a free parameter. The effective M_A which best describes the data is 1.23 +0.13/-0.09 (fit) +0.12/-0.15 (syst.) GeV.

• Publisher: Cornell University Library, arXiv.org
• Subject: Baryon resonance / Computer simulation / Dipoles / Form factors / Iron / Kinematics / Momentum transfer / Monte Carlo simulation / Neutrinos / Neutron flux / Nuclei (nuclear physics) / Scattering / Statistical tests