Evidence for Neutral-Current Diffractive π^{0} Production from Hydrogen in Neutrino Interactions on Hydrocarbon

J Wolcott; L Aliaga; O Altinok; 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; E Endress; J Felix; L Fields; R Fine; R Galindo; H Gallagher; T Golan; R Gran; D A Harris; A Higuera; K Hurtado; 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; D Naples; J K Nelson; A Norrick; Nuruzzaman; J Osta; V Paolone; J Park; C E Patrick; G N Perdue; L Rakotondravohitra; M A Ramirez; H Ray; L Ren; D Rimal; P A Rodrigues; D Ruterbories; H Schellman; D W Schmitz; C J Solano Salinas; S Sánchez Falero; N Tagg; B G Tice; E Valencia; T Walton; M Wospakrik; D Zhang; MINERvA Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.111801

Evidence for Neutral-Current Diffractive π^{0} Production from Hydrogen in Neutrino Interactions on Hydrocarbon

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Sep 9;117(11):111801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.111801. Epub 2016 Sep 7.

Authors

J Wolcott^{1

2}, L Aliaga³, O Altinok², 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, E Endress⁸, J Felix⁹, L Fields^{4

10}, R Fine¹, R Galindo¹¹, H Gallagher², T Golan^{1

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

9}, K Hurtado^{6

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

14}, E Maher¹⁵, S Manly¹, W A Mann², C M Marshall¹, D A Martinez Caicedo⁶, K S McFarland^{1

4}, C L McGivern⁷, A M McGowan¹, B Messerly⁷, J Miller¹¹, A Mislivec¹, J G Morfín⁴, J Mousseau¹⁶, D Naples⁷, J K Nelson³, A Norrick³, Nuruzzaman^{11

14}, J Osta⁴, V Paolone⁷, J Park¹, C E Patrick¹⁰, G N Perdue^{1

4}, L Rakotondravohitra⁴, M A Ramirez⁹, H Ray¹⁶, L Ren⁷, D Rimal¹⁶, P A Rodrigues¹, D Ruterbories¹, H Schellman^{10

17}, D W Schmitz^{4

18}, C J Solano Salinas¹³, S Sánchez Falero⁸, N Tagg¹⁹, B G Tice¹⁴, E Valencia⁹, T Walton²⁰, M Wospakrik¹⁶, D Zhang³; MINERvA Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
² Physics Department, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA.
³ Department of Physics, College of William & 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 Dr. 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 No. 5, Colonia Centro, Guanajuato, Guanajuato 36000, México.
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 Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Apartado 31139, Lima, Perú
¹⁴ Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
¹⁵ Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, 375 Church Street, North Adams, Massachusetts 01247, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
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.

PMID: 27661679
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.111801

Abstract

The MINERvA experiment observes an excess of events containing electromagnetic showers relative to the expectation from Monte Carlo simulations in neutral-current neutrino interactions with mean beam energy of 4.5 GeV on a hydrocarbon target. The excess is characterized and found to be consistent with neutral-current π^{0} production with a broad energy distribution peaking at 7 GeV and a total cross section of 0.26±0.02(stat.)±0.08(sys.)×10^{-39} cm^{2}. The angular distribution, electromagnetic shower energy, and spatial distribution of the energy depositions of the excess are consistent with expectations from neutrino neutral-current diffractive π^{0} production from hydrogen in the hydrocarbon target. These data comprise the first direct experimental observation and constraint for a reaction that poses an important background process in neutrino-oscillation experiments searching for ν_{μ} to ν_{e} oscillations.