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Creators/Authors contains: "Waldron, A. V."

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  1. The first simultaneous measurements of the ν μ quasielasticlike cross section on C, CH, H 2 O , Fe, and Pb targets as a function of kinematic imbalance variables in the plane transverse to the incoming neutrino direction are presented. These variables combine the muon and proton information to provide a new way to disentangle the effects of the nucleus in quasielasticlike processes. The data were obtained using a wideband ν μ beam with E ν 6 GeV . Cross-section ratios of the different target materials to CH are also shown. These measurements are used to explore the nature of the cross-section A scaling, as well as initial and final state interaction effects. Comparisons are made to predictions from a number of commonly used neutrino Monte Carlo event generators. The range of predictions of the different models tends to cover the data but the degree and consistency of the agreement suffers in regions, and on higher A targets, where the final state interactions are expected to be more pronounced. 
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  2. The flux of cosmic ray muons at the Earth’s surface exhibits seasonal variations due to changes in the temperature of the atmosphere affecting the production and decay of mesons in the upper atmosphere. Using 1473 live days of data collected by the NuMI Off-axis ν e Appearance (NOvA) Near Detector during 2018–2022, we studied the seasonal pattern in the multiple-muon event rate. The data confirm an anticorrelation between the multiple-muon event rate and effective atmospheric temperature, consistent across all the years of data. Previous analyses from MINOS and NOvA saw a similar anticorrelation but did not include an explanation. We find that this anticorrelation is driven by altitude–geometry effects as the average muon production height changes with the season. This has been studied with a CORSIKA cosmic ray simulation package by varying atmospheric parameters, and provides an explanation to a longstanding discrepancy between the seasonal phases of single and multiple-muon events. 
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  3. This Letter reports measurements of muon-neutrino disappearance and electron-neutrino appearance and the corresponding antineutrino processes between the two NOvA detectors in the NuMI neutrino beam. These measurements use a dataset with double the neutrino mode beam exposure that was previously analyzed, along with improved simulation and analysis techniques. A joint fit to these samples in the three-flavor paradigm results in the most precise single-experiment constraint on the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting, Δ m 32 2 = 2.43 1 0.034 + 0.036 ( 2.47 9 0.036 + 0.036 ) × 10 3 eV 2 if the mass ordering is normal (inverted). In both orderings, a region close to maximal mixing with sin 2 θ 23 = 0.5 5 0.06 + 0.02 is preferred. The NOvA data show a mild preference for the normal mass ordering with a Bayes factor of 2.4 (corresponding to 70% of the posterior probability), indicating that the normal ordering is 2.4 times more probable than the inverted ordering. When incorporating a 2D Δ m 32 2 sin 2 2 θ 13 constraint based on Daya Bay data, this preference strengthens to a Bayes factor of 6.6 (87%). 
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  4. Accelerator based neutrino oscillation experiments seek to measure the relative number of electron and muon (anti)neutrinos at different L / E values. 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, E avail , and transverse momentum transfer, p T , or three momentum transfer, q 3 are presented. Published by the American Physical Society2024 
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  5. 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. 
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  6. 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. 
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  7. We present the measurement of π + -argon inelastic cross sections using the ProtoDUNE single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber in the incident π + kinetic energy range of 500–800 MeV in multiple exclusive channels (absorption, charge exchange, and the remaining inelastic interactions). The results of this analysis are important inputs to simulations of liquid argon neutrino experiments such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and the Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. They will be employed to improve the modeling of final state interactions within neutrino event generators used by these experiments, as well as the modeling of π + -argon secondary interactions within the liquid argon. This is the first measurement of π + -argon absorption at this kinetic energy range as well as the first ever measurement of π + -argon charge exchange. 
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