Simultaneous Measurement of Proton and Lepton Kinematics in Quasielasticlike ν_{μ}-Hydrocarbon Interactions from 2 to 20 GeV

D Ruterbories; S Akhter; Z Ahmad Dar; F Akbar; V Ansari; M V Ascencio; M Sajjad Athar; A Bashyal; A Bercellie; M Betancourt; A Bodek; J L Bonilla; A Bravar; H Budd; G Caceres; T Cai; M F Carneiro; G A Díaz; H da Motta; J Felix; L Fields; A Filkins; R Fine; A M Gago; H Gallagher; P K Gaur; A Ghosh; S M Gilligan; R Gran; E Haase; D A Harris; S Henry; K Jacobsen; D Jena; S Jena; J Kleykamp; A Klustová; M Kordosky; D Last; A Lozano; X-G Lu; E Maher; S Manly; W A Mann; C Mauger; K S McFarland; A M McGowan; B Messerly; J Miller; O Moreno; J G Morfín; D Naples; J K Nelson; C Nguyen; A Olivier; V Paolone; G N Perdue; K-J Plows; M A Ramírez; R D Ransome; H Ray; H Schellman; C J Solano Salinas; H Su; M Sultana; V S Syrotenko; E Valencia; N H Vaughan; A V Waldron; M O Wascko; C Wret; B Yaeggy; L Zazueta; MINERvA Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.021803

Simultaneous Measurement of Proton and Lepton Kinematics in Quasielasticlike ν_{μ}-Hydrocarbon Interactions from 2 to 20 GeV

Phys Rev Lett. 2022 Jul 8;129(2):021803. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.021803.

Authors

D Ruterbories¹, S Akhter², Z Ahmad Dar^{2

3}, F Akbar², V Ansari², M V Ascencio⁴, M Sajjad Athar², A Bashyal⁵, A Bercellie¹, M Betancourt⁶, A Bodek¹, J L Bonilla⁷, A Bravar⁸, H Budd¹, G Caceres⁹, T Cai¹, M F Carneiro^{5

9}, G A Díaz¹, H da Motta⁹, J Felix⁷, L Fields¹⁰, A Filkins³, R Fine¹, A M Gago⁴, H Gallagher¹¹, P K Gaur², A Ghosh^{9

12}, S M Gilligan⁵, R Gran¹³, E Haase¹³, D A Harris^{6

14}, S Henry¹, K Jacobsen¹³, D Jena⁶, S Jena¹⁵, J Kleykamp¹, A Klustová¹⁶, M Kordosky³, D Last¹⁷, A Lozano⁹, X-G Lu^{18

19}, E Maher²⁰, S Manly¹, W A Mann¹¹, C Mauger¹⁷, K S McFarland¹, A M McGowan¹, B Messerly²¹, J Miller¹², O Moreno^{3

7}, J G Morfín⁶, D Naples²¹, J K Nelson³, C Nguyen²², A Olivier¹, V Paolone²¹, G N Perdue^{1

6}, K-J Plows¹⁹, M A Ramírez^{7

17}, R D Ransome²³, H Ray²², H Schellman⁵, C J Solano Salinas²⁴, H Su²¹, M Sultana¹, V S Syrotenko¹¹, E Valencia^{3

7}, N H Vaughan⁵, A V Waldron¹⁶, M O Wascko¹⁶, C Wret¹, B Yaeggy¹², L Zazueta³; MINERvA Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
² AMU Campus, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh 202001, India.
³ Department of Physics, William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA.
⁴ Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Apartado 1761 Lima, Perú.
⁵ Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA.
⁶ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA.
⁷ Campus León y Campus Guanajuato, Universidad de Guanajuato, Lascurain de Retana No. 5, Colonia Centro, Guanajuato 36000, Guanajuato, México.
⁸ University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
⁹ Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, Rua Dr. Xavier Sigaud 150, Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 22290-180, Brazil.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA.
¹¹ Physics Department, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA.
¹² Departamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Avenida España 1680 Casilla 110-V, Valparaíso, Chile.
¹³ Department of Physics, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA.
¹⁴ York University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada.
¹⁵ Department of Physical Sciences, IISER Mohali, Knowledge City, SAS Nagar, Mohali-140306 Punjab, India.
¹⁶ The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
¹⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
¹⁹ Oxford University, Department of Physics, Oxford OX1 3PJ, United Kingdom.
²⁰ Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, 375 Church Street, North Adams, Massachusetts 01247, USA.
²¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
²² University of Florida, Department of Physics, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
²³ Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
²⁴ Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Apartado 31139, Lima, Perú.

PMID: 35867435
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.021803

Abstract

Neutrino charged-current quasielastic-like scattering, a reaction category extensively used in neutrino oscillation measurements, probes nuclear effects that govern neutrino-nucleus interactions. This Letter reports the first measurement of the triple-differential cross section for ν_{μ} quasielastic-like reactions using the hydrocarbon medium of the MINERvA detector exposed to a wideband beam spanning 2≤E_{ν}≤20 GeV. The measurement maps the correlations among transverse and longitudinal muon momenta and summed proton kinetic energies, and compares them to predictions from a state-of-art simulation. Discrepancies are observed that likely reflect shortfalls with modeling of pion and nucleon intranuclear scattering and/or spectator nucleon ejection from struck nuclei. The separate determination of leptonic and hadronic variables can inform experimental approaches to neutrino-energy estimation.