An effective method to read out large scintillator areas with precise timing

Using scintillator tile technology several square meters of plastic scintillator are read out by only two photomultiplier with a time precision of about 1.5 nsec. Two examples are discussed to build a detector based on this technology to search for cosmic muons and neutrinos.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Contributed to Workshop on Scintillating Fiber Detectors (SCIFI97), Notre Dame, IN, 2-6 Nov 199

Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions

The study of neutrino oscillations has necessitated a new generation of neutrino experiments that are exploring neutrino-nuclear scattering processes. We focus in particular on charged-current quasi-elastic scattering, a particularly important channel that has been extensively investigated both in the bubble-chamber era and by current experiments. Recent results have led to theoretical reexamination of this process. We review the standard picture of quasi-elastic scattering as developed in electron scattering, review and discuss experimental results, and discuss additional nuclear effects such as exchange currents and short-range correlations that may play a significant role in neutrino-nucleus scattering

The Presampler for the Forward and Rear Calorimeter in the ZEUS Detector

The ZEUS detector at HERA has been supplemented with a presampler detector in front of the forward and rear calorimeters. It consists of a segmented scintillator array read out with wavelength-shifting fibers. We discuss its desi gn, construction and performance. Test beam data obtained with a prototype presampler and the ZEUS prototype calorimeter demonstrate the main function of this detector, i.e. the correction for the energy lost by an electron interacting in inactive material in front of the calorimeter.Comment: 20 pages including 16 figure

Shadowing in neutrino deep inelastic scattering and the determination of the strange quark distribution

We discuss shadowing corrections to the structure function $F_2$ in neutrino deep-inelastic scattering on heavy nuclear targets. In particular, we examine the role played by shadowing in the comparison of the structure functions $F_2$ measured in neutrino and muon deep inelastic scattering. The importance of shadowing corrections in the determination of the strange quark distributions is explained.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Methods to Determine Neutrino Flux at Low Energies:Investigation of the Low ν\nu Method

We investigate the "low-$\nu$" method (developed by the CCFR/NUTEV collaborations) to determine the neutrino flux in a wide band neutrino beam at very low energies, a region of interest to neutrino oscillations experiments. Events with low hadronic final state energy $\nu<\nu_{cut}$ (of 1, 2 and 5 GeV) were used by the MINOS collaboration to determine the neutrino flux in their measurements of neutrino ($\nu_\mu$) and antineutrino (\nub_\mu) total cross sections. The lowest $\nu_\mu$ energy for which the method was used in MINOS is 3.5 GeV, and the lowest \nub_\mu energy is 6 GeV. At these energies, the cross sections are dominated by inelastic processes. We investigate the application of the method to determine the neutrino flux for $\nu_\mu$, \nub_\mu energies as low as 0.7 GeV where the cross sections are dominated by quasielastic scattering and $\Delta$(1232) resonance production. We find that the method can be extended to low energies by using $\nu_{cut}$ values of 0.25 and 0.50 GeV, which is feasible in fully active neutrino detectors such as MINERvA.Comment: 25 pages, 32 figures, to be published in European Physics Journal

Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure

Measurement of the Atmospheric Muon Spectrum from 20 to 3000 GeV

The absolute muon flux between 20 GeV and 3000 GeV is measured with the L3 magnetic muon spectrometer for zenith angles ranging from 0 degree to 58 degree. Due to the large exposure of about 150 m2 sr d, and the excellent momentum resolution of the L3 muon chambers, a precision of 2.3 % at 150 GeV in the vertical direction is achieved. The ratio of positive to negative muons is studied between 20 GeV and 500 GeV, and the average vertical muon charge ratio is found to be 1.285 +- 0.003 (stat.) +- 0.019 (syst.).Comment: Total 32 pages, 9Figure

Measurement of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of \xpom, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to \xpom, and of $Q^2$. The \xpom dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a~=~1.30~\pm~0.08~(stat)~^{+~0.08}_{-~0.14}~(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q^2$. In the measured $Q^2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q^2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.Comment: 36 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Measurement of Jet Shapes in Photoproduction at HERA

The shape of jets produced in quasi-real photon-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies in the range $134-277$ GeV has been measured using the hadronic energy flow. The measurement was done with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Jets are identified using a cone algorithm in the $\eta - \phi$ plane with a cone radius of one unit. Measured jet shapes both in inclusive jet and dijet production with transverse energies $E^{jet}_T>14$ GeV are presented. The jet shape broadens as the jet pseudorapidity ($\eta^{jet}$) increases and narrows as $E^{jet}_T$ increases. In dijet photoproduction, the jet shapes have been measured separately for samples dominated by resolved and by direct processes. Leading-logarithm parton-shower Monte Carlo calculations of resolved and direct processes describe well the measured jet shapes except for the inclusive production of jets with high $\eta^{jet}$ and low $E^{jet}_T$. The observed broadening of the jet shape as $\eta^{jet}$ increases is consistent with the predicted increase in the fraction of final state gluon jets.Comment: 29 pages including 9 figure

A Measurement of Coherent Neutral Pion Production in Neutrino Neutral Current Interactions in NOMAD

We present a study of exclusive neutral pion production in neutrino-nucleus Neutral Current interactions using data from the NOMAD experiment at the CERN SPS. The data correspond to $1.44 \times 10^6$ muon-neutrino Charged Current interactions in the energy range $2.5 \leq E_{\nu} \leq 300$ GeV. Neutrino events with only one visible $\pi^0$ in the final state are expected to result from two Neutral Current processes: coherent $\pi^0$ production, {\boldmath $\nu + {\cal A} \to \nu + {\cal A} + \pi^0$} and single $\pi^0$ production in neutrino-nucleon scattering. The signature of coherent $\pi^0$ production is an emergent $\pi^0$ almost collinear with the incident neutrino while $\pi^0$'s produced in neutrino-nucleon deep inelastic scattering have larger transverse momenta. In this analysis all relevant backgrounds to the coherent $\pi^0$ production signal are measured using data themselves. Having determined the backgrounds, and using the Rein-Sehgal model for the coherent $\pi^0$ production to compute the detection efficiency, we obtain {\boldmath $4630 \pm 522 (stat) \pm 426 (syst)$} corrected coherent-$\pi^0$ events with $E_{\pi^0} \geq 0.5$ GeV. We measure {\boldmath $\sigma (\nu {\cal A} \to \nu {\cal A} \pi^0) = [ 72.6 \pm 8.1(stat) \pm 6.9(syst) ] \times 10^{-40} cm^2/nucleus$}. This is the most precise measurement of the coherent $\pi^0$ production to date.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.