Study of quasielastic scattering using charged-current nu_mu-iron interactions in the MINOS Near Detector

UNSPECIFIED (2015) Study of quasielastic scattering using charged-current nu_mu-iron interactions in the MINOS Near Detector. Physical Review D, 91 (1): 012005. ISSN 1550-7998

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Abstract

Kinematic distributions from an inclusive sample of 1.41 x 10^6 charged-current nu_mu interactions on iron, obtained using the MINOS Near Detector exposed to a wide-band beam with peak flux at 3 GeV, are compared to a conventional treatment of neutrino scattering within a Fermi gas nucleus. Results are used to guide the selection of a subsample enriched in quasielastic nu_mu Fe interactions, containing an estimated 123,000 quasielastic events of incident energies 1 = 2.79 GeV. Four additional subsamples representing topological and kinematic sideband regions to quasielastic scattering are also selected for the purpose of evaluating backgrounds. Comparisons using subsample distributions in four-momentum transfer Q^2 show the Monte Carlo model to be inadequate at low Q^2. Its shortcomings are remedied via inclusion of a Q^2-dependent suppression function for baryon resonance production, developed from the data. A chi-square fit of the resulting Monte Carlo simulation to the shape of the Q^2 distribution for the quasielastic-enriched sample is carried out with the axial-vector mass M_A of the dipole axial-vector form factor of the neutron as a free parameter. The effective M_A which best describes the data is 1.23 +0.13/-0.09 (fit) +0.12/-0.15 (syst.) GeV.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Physical Review D
Additional Information:
© 2015 American Physical Society 20 pages, 13 figures, 3 Tables Accepted for publication in PRD
Subjects:
?? hep-ex ??
ID Code:
73352
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
18 Jun 2015 05:37
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
22 Nov 2024 01:23