Measurement of Electron Neutrino Quasielastic and Quasielasticlike Scattering on Hydrocarbon at ⟨E_{ν}⟩=3.6 GeV

J Wolcott; L Aliaga; O Altinok; L Bellantoni; A Bercellie; M Betancourt; A Bodek; A Bravar; H Budd; T Cai; M F Carneiro; J Chvojka; H da Motta; J Devan; S A Dytman; G A Díaz; B Eberly; J Felix; L Fields; R Fine; A M Gago; R Galindo; H Gallagher; A Ghosh; T Golan; R Gran; D A Harris; A Higuera; M Kiveni; J Kleykamp; M Kordosky; T Le; E Maher; S Manly; W A Mann; C M Marshall; D A Martinez Caicedo; K S McFarland; C L McGivern; A M McGowan; B Messerly; J Miller; A Mislivec; J G Morfín; J Mousseau; T Muhlbeier; D Naples; J K Nelson; A Norrick; J Osta; V Paolone; J Park; C E Patrick; G N Perdue; L Rakotondravohitra; R D Ransome; H Ray; L Ren; D Rimal; P A Rodrigues; D Ruterbories; G Salazar; H Schellman; D W Schmitz; C J Solano Salinas; N Tagg; B G Tice; E Valencia; T Walton; M Wospakrik; G Zavala; A Zegarra; D Zhang; B P Ziemer; MINERvA Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.081802

Measurement of Electron Neutrino Quasielastic and Quasielasticlike Scattering on Hydrocarbon at ⟨E_{ν}⟩=3.6 GeV

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Feb 26;116(8):081802. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.081802. Epub 2016 Feb 25.

Authors

J Wolcott^{1

2}, L Aliaga³, O Altinok², L Bellantoni⁴, A Bercellie¹, M Betancourt⁴, A Bodek¹, A Bravar⁵, H Budd¹, T Cai¹, M F Carneiro⁶, J Chvojka¹, H da Motta⁶, J Devan³, S A Dytman⁷, G A Díaz^{1

8}, B Eberly⁷, J Felix⁹, L Fields^{4

10}, R Fine¹, A M Gago⁸, R Galindo¹¹, H Gallagher², A Ghosh^{1

6}, T Golan^{1

4}, R Gran¹², D A Harris⁴, A Higuera^{1

9}, M Kiveni⁴, J Kleykamp¹, M Kordosky³, T Le^{2

13}, E Maher¹⁴, S Manly¹, W A Mann², C M Marshall¹, D A Martinez Caicedo⁴, K S McFarland^{1

4}, C L McGivern⁷, A M McGowan¹, B Messerly⁷, J Miller¹¹, A Mislivec¹, J G Morfín⁴, J Mousseau¹⁵, T Muhlbeier⁶, D Naples⁷, J K Nelson³, A Norrick³, J Osta⁴, V Paolone⁷, J Park¹, C E Patrick¹⁰, G N Perdue^{1

4}, L Rakotondravohitra⁴, R D Ransome¹³, H Ray¹⁵, L Ren⁷, D Rimal¹⁵, P A Rodrigues¹, D Ruterbories¹, G Salazar¹⁶, H Schellman^{10

17}, D W Schmitz^{4

18}, C J Solano Salinas¹⁶, N Tagg¹⁹, B G Tice¹³, E Valencia⁹, T Walton²⁰, M Wospakrik¹⁵, G Zavala⁹, A Zegarra¹⁶, D Zhang³, B P Ziemer²¹; MINERvA Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
² Physics Department, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA.
³ Department of Physics, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA.
⁴ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA.
⁵ University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
⁶ Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, Rua Doctor Xavier Sigaud 150, Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 22290-180, Brazil.
⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
⁸ Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Apartado 1761, Lima, Perú
⁹ Campus León y Campus Guanajuato, Universidad de Guanajuato, Lascurain de Retana Number 5, Colonia Centro, Guanajuato 36000, Guanajuato, Mexico.
¹⁰ Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
¹¹ Departamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Avenida España 1680 Casilla 110-V, Valparaíso, Chile.
¹² Department of Physics, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA.
¹³ Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
¹⁴ Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, 375 Church Street, North Adams, Massachusetts 01247, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
¹⁶ Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Apartado 31139, Lima, Perú
¹⁷ Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA.
¹⁸ Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Physics, Otterbein University, 1 South Grove Street, Westerville, Ohio 43081, USA.
²⁰ Department of Physics, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia 23668, USA.
²¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-4575, USA.

PMID: 26967410
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.081802

Abstract

The first direct measurement of electron neutrino quasielastic and quasielasticlike scattering on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region of incident neutrino energy has been carried out using the MINERvA detector in the NuMI beam at Fermilab. The flux-integrated differential cross sections in the electron production angle, electron energy, and Q^{2} are presented. The ratio of the quasielastic, flux-integrated differential cross section in Q^{2} for ν_{e} with that of similarly selected ν_{μ}-induced events from the same exposure is used to probe assumptions that underpin conventional treatments of charged-current ν_{e} interactions used by long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. The data are found to be consistent with lepton universality and are well described by the predictions of the neutrino event generator GENIE.