Constraint of the MINERνA medium energy neutrino flux using neutrino-electron elastic scattering
Elastic neutrino scattering on electrons is a precisely known purely leptonic process that provides a standard candle for measuring neutrino flux in conventional neutrino beams. Using a total sample of 810 neutrino-electron scatters after background subtraction, the measurement reduces the normalization uncertainty on the νμ NuMI beam flux between 2 and 20 GeV from 7.6 to 3.9%. This is the most precise measurement of neutrino-electron scattering to date, will reduce uncertainties on MINERνA’s absolute cross section measurements, and demonstrates a technique that can be used in future neutrino beams such as long baseline neutrino facility.
Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10197637
Journal Name:
Physical review
Volume:
D100
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
092001
ISSN:
2470-0029
1. Abstract We detail the sensitivity of the proposed liquid xenon DARWIN observatory to solar neutrinos via elastic electron scattering. We find that DARWIN will have the potential to measure the fluxes of five solar neutrino components: pp , $$^7$$ 7 Be, $$^{13}$$ 13 N, $$^{15}$$ 15 O and pep . The precision of the $$^{13}$$ 13 N, $$^{15}$$ 15 O and pep components is hindered by the double-beta decay of $$^{136}$$ 136 Xe and, thus, would benefit from a depleted target. A high-statistics observation of pp neutrinos would allow us to infer the values of the electroweak mixing angle, \sinmore »