MINERvA neutrino detector response measured with test beam data

The MINERvA collaboration operated a scaled-down replica of the solid scintillator tracking and sampling calorimeter regions of the MINERvA detector in a hadron test beam at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility. This article reports measurements with samples of protons, pions, and electrons from 0.35 to 2.0 GeV/c momentum. The calorimetric response to protons, pions, and electrons are obtained from these data. A measurement of the parameter in Birks' law and an estimate of the tracking efficiency are extracted from the proton sample. Overall the data are well described by a Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulation of the detector and particle interactions with agreements better than 4%, though some features of the data are not precisely modeled. These measurements are used to tune the MINERvA detector simulation and evaluate systematic uncertainties in support of the MINERvA neutrino cross section measurement program.Comment: as accepted by NIM

Identification of Nuclear Effects in Neutrino-Carbon Interactions at Low Three-Momentum Transfer

Two different nuclear-medium effects are isolated using a low three-momentum transfer subsample of neutrino-carbon scattering data from the MINERvA neutrino experiment. The observed hadronic energy in charged-current ν[subscript]μ interactions is combined with muon kinematics to permit separation of the quasielastic and Δ(1232) resonance processes. First, we observe a small cross section at very low energy transfer that matches the expected screening effect of long-range nucleon correlations. Second, additions to the event rate in the kinematic region between the quasielastic and Δ resonance processes are needed to describe the data. The data in this kinematic region also have an enhanced population of multiproton final states. Contributions predicted for scattering from a nucleon pair have both properties; the model tested in this analysis is a significant improvement but does not fully describe the data. We present the results as a double-differential cross section to enable further investigation of nuclear models. Improved description of the effects of the nuclear environment are required by current and future neutrino oscillation experiments

Charged pion production in nu[subscript]μ interactions onhydrocarbon at <E[subscript]nu> = 4.0 GeV

Charged pion production via charged-current nu[subscript]μ interactions on plastic scintillator (CH) is studied using the MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI wideband neutrino beam at Fermilab. Events with hadronic invariant mass W<1.4  GeV and W<1.8  GeV are selected in separate analyses: the lower W cut isolates single pion production, which is expected to occur primarily through the Δ(1232) resonance, while results from the higher cut include the effects of higher resonances. Cross sections as functions of pion angle and kinetic energy are compared to predictions from theoretical calculations and generator-based models for neutrinos ranging in energy from 1.5–10 GeV. The data are best described by calculations which include significant contributions from pion intranuclear rescattering. These measurements constrain the primary interaction rate and the role of final state interactions in pion production, both of which need to be well understood by neutrino oscillation experiments

Identification of Nuclear Effects in Neutrino-Carbon Interactions at Low Three-Momentum Transfer

We are grateful to the authors of the RPA and 2p2h models for making the code for their calculations available for study and incorporation into this analysis. This work was supported by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory under U.S. Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359, which included the MINERvA construction project. Construction support was also granted by the United States National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-0619727 and by the University of Rochester. Support for scientists for this specific publication was granted by the United States National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-1306944. Support for participating scientists was provided by NSF and DOE (USA) by CAPES and CNPq (Brazil), by CoNaCyT (Mexico), by CONICYT (Chile), by CONCYTEC, DGI-PUCP and IDI/IGI-UNI (Peru), and by Latin American Center for Physics (CLAF). We thank the MINOS Collaboration for use of its near detector data. Finally, we thank the staff of Fermilab for support of the beam line, the detector, and the computing infrastructure.Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica - Concyte

UIS Baden-Wuerttemberg. Projekt GLOBUS. Multimediales Recherchieren und Verarbeiten von globalen Umweltsachdaten im Umweltinformationsystem Baden-Wuerttemberg. Phase V 1998

Available from TIB Hannover: ZA 5141(6250) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman