Accelerator based neutrino oscillation experiments seek to measure the relative number of electron and muon (anti)neutrinos at differentvalues. However high statistics studies of neutrino interactions are almost exclusively measured using muon (anti)neutrinos since the dominant flavor of neutrinos produced by accelerator based beams are of the muon type. This work reports new measurements of electron (anti)neutrinos interactions in hydrocarbon, obtained by strongly suppressing backgrounds initiated by muon flavor (anti)neutrinos. Double differential cross sections as a function of visible energy transfer,, and transverse momentum transfer,, or three momentum transfer,are presented.
Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher.
Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.
-
Published by the American Physical Society 2024 Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2025 -
Neutron production in antineutrino interactions can lead to bias in energy reconstruction in neutrino oscillation experiments, but these interactions have rarely been studied. MINERvA previously studied neutron production at an average antineutrino energy of ∼3 GeV in 2016 and found deficiencies in leading models. In this paper, the MINERvA 6 GeV average antineutrino energy dataset is shown to have similar disagreements. A measurement of the cross section for an antineutrino to produce two or more neutrons and have low visible energy is presented as an experiment-independent way to explore neutron production modeling. This cross section disagrees with several leading models’ predictions. Neutron modeling techniques from nuclear physics are used to quantify neutron detection uncertainties on this result.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)We have measured new observables based on the final state kinematic imbalances in the mesonless production of ν μ + A → μ − + p + X in the MINERνA tracker. Components of the muon-proton momentum imbalances parallel ( δ p Ty ) and perpendicular ( δ p Tx ) to the momentum transfer in the transverse plane are found to be sensitive to the nuclear effects such as Fermi motion, binding energy, and non-quasielastic (QE) contributions. The QE peak location in δ p Ty is particularly sensitive to the binding energy. Differential cross sections are compared to predictions from different neutrino interaction models. The Fermi gas models presented in this study cannot simultaneously describe features such as QE peak location, width, and the non-QE events contributing to the signal process. Correcting the genie’s binding energy implementation according to theory causes better agreement with data. Hints of proton left-right asymmetry are observed in δ p Tx . Better modeling of the binding energy can reduce the bias in neutrino energy reconstruction, and these observables can be applied in current and future experiments to better constrain nuclear effects.more » « less
-
We present measurements of the cross section for antineutrino charged-current quasielasticlike scattering on hydrocarbon using the medium energy NuMI wide-band neutrino beam peaking at antineutrino energy hE¯νi ∼ 6 GeV. The measurements are presented as a function of the longitudinal momentum (pjj) and transverse momentum (pT) of the final state muon. This work complements our previously reported high statistics measurement in the neutrino channel and extends the previous antineutrino measurement made in a low energy beam at hE¯νi ∼ 3.5 GeV out to pT of 2.5 GeV=c. Current theoretical models do not completely describe the data in this previously unexplored high pT region. The single differential cross section as a function of four-momentum transfer (Q2 QE) now extends to 4 GeV2 with high statistics. The cross section as a function of Q2 QE shows that the tuned simulations developed by the MINERvA Collaboration that agreed well with the low energy beam measurements do not agree as well with the medium energy beam measurements. Newer neutrino interaction models such as the GENIE v3 tunes are better able to simulate the high Q2 QE region.more » « less
-
Final-state kinematic imbalances are measured in mesonless production of νμ+A→μ−+p+X in the MINERvA tracker. Initial- and final-state nuclear effects are probed using the direction of the μ−−p transverse momentum imbalance and the initial-state momentum of the struck neutron. Differential cross sections are compared to predictions based on current approaches to medium modeling. These models underpredict the cross section at intermediate intranuclear momentum transfers that generally exceed the Fermi momenta. As neutrino interaction models need to correctly incorporate the effect of the nucleus in order to predict neutrino energy resolution in oscillation experiments, this result points to a region of phase space where additional cross section strength is needed in current models, and demonstrates a new technique that would be suitable for use in fine-grained liquid argon detectors where the effect of the nucleus may be even larger.more » « less
-
Abstract We compare different neural network architectures for machine learning algorithms designed to identify the neutrino interaction vertex position in the MINERvA detector. The architectures developed and optimized by hand are compared with the architectures developed in an automated way using the package “Multi-node Evolutionary Neural Networks for Deep Learning” (MENNDL), developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. While the domain-expert hand-tuned network was the best performer, the differences were negligible and the auto-generated networks performed as well. There is always a trade-off between human, and computer resources for network optimization and this work suggests that automated optimization, assuming resources are available, provides a compelling way to save significant expert time.more » « less