NOvA · 2024

Measurement of the double-differential cross section of muon-neutrino charged-current interactions with low hadronic energy in the NOvA Near Detector

Measurements

Current	Flavor	Target	Topology	Type	Observables	Energy
CC	νμ	CH2	Low recoil	single-diff	differential cross sections (muon kinematics)	hadron KE < 250MeV

Abstract

The NOvA collaboration reports cross-section measurements for $\nu_{\mu}$ charged-current interactions with low hadronic energy (maximum kinetic energy of 250 MeV for protons and 175 MeV for pions) in the NOvA Near Detector. The results are presented as a double-differential cross section as a function of the direct observables of the final-state muon kinematics. Results are also presented as a single-differential cross section as a function of the derived square of the four-momentum transfer, $Q^{2}$ , and as a function of the derived neutrino energy. The data correspond to an accumulated 8.09 $\times10^{20}$ protons-on-target (POT) in the neutrino mode of the NuMI beam, with a narrow band of neutrino energies peaked at 1.8 GeV. The analysis provides a sample of neutrino-nucleus interactions with an enhanced fraction of quasi-elastic and two-particle-two-hole (2p2h) interactions. This enhancement allows quantitative comparisons with various nuclear models. We find strong disagreement between data and theory-based models in various regions of the muon kinematic phase space, especially in the forward muon direction.

Citation

@article{NOvA:2024rov,
    author = "Acero, M. A. and others",
    collaboration = "NOvA",
    title = "{Measurement of the double-differential cross section of muon-neutrino charged-current interactions with low hadronic energy in the NOvA Near Detector}",
    eprint = "2410.10222",
    archivePrefix = "arXiv",
    primaryClass = "hep-ex",
    reportNumber = "FERMILAB-PUB-24-0654-PPD",
    month = "10",
    year = "2024"
}