Measurement of muon antineutrino quasielastic scattering on a hydrocarbon target at Eν ~ 3.5 GeV

L Fields; J Chvojka; L Aliaga; O Altinok; B Baldin; A Baumbaugh; A Bodek; D Boehnlein; S Boyd; R Bradford; W K Brooks; H Budd; A Butkevich; D A Martinez Caicedo; C M Castromonte; M E Christy; H Chung; M Clark; H da Motta; D S Damiani; I Danko; M Datta; M Day; R DeMaat; J Devan; E Draeger; S A Dytman; G A Díaz; B Eberly; D A Edmondson; J Felix; T Fitzpatrick; G A Fiorentini; A M Gago; H Gallagher; C A George; J A Gielata; C Gingu; B Gobbi; R Gran; N Grossman; J Hanson; D A Harris; J Heaton; A Higuera; I J Howley; K Hurtado; M Jerkins; T Kafka; J Kaisen; M O Kanter; C E Keppel; J Kilmer; M Kordosky; A H Krajeski; S A Kulagin; T Le; H Lee; A G Leister; G Locke; G Maggi; E Maher; S Manly; W A Mann; C M Marshall; K S McFarland; C L McGivern; A M McGowan; A Mislivec; J G Morfín; J Mousseau; D Naples; J K Nelson; G Niculescu; I Niculescu; N Ochoa; C D O'Connor; J Olsen; B Osmanov; J Osta; J L Palomino; V Paolone; J Park; C E Patrick; G N Perdue; C Peña; L Rakotondravohitra; R D Ransome; H Ray; L Ren; P A Rodrigues; C Rude; K E Sassin; H Schellman; D W Schmitz; R M Schneider; E C Schulte; C Simon; F D Snider; M C Snyder; J T Sobczyk; C J Solano Salinas; N Tagg; W Tan; B G Tice; G Tzanakos; J P Velásquez; J Walding; T Walton; J Wolcott; B A Wolthuis; N Woodward; G Zavala; H B Zeng; D Zhang; L Y Zhu; B P Ziemer; MINERvA Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.022501

Measurement of muon antineutrino quasielastic scattering on a hydrocarbon target at Eν ~ 3.5 GeV

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Jul 12;111(2):022501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.022501. Epub 2013 Jul 11.

Authors

L Fields¹, J Chvojka, L Aliaga, O Altinok, B Baldin, A Baumbaugh, A Bodek, D Boehnlein, S Boyd, R Bradford, W K Brooks, H Budd, A Butkevich, D A Martinez Caicedo, C M Castromonte, M E Christy, H Chung, M Clark, H da Motta, D S Damiani, I Danko, M Datta, M Day, R DeMaat, J Devan, E Draeger, S A Dytman, G A Díaz, B Eberly, D A Edmondson, J Felix, T Fitzpatrick, G A Fiorentini, A M Gago, H Gallagher, C A George, J A Gielata, C Gingu, B Gobbi, R Gran, N Grossman, J Hanson, D A Harris, J Heaton, A Higuera, I J Howley, K Hurtado, M Jerkins, T Kafka, J Kaisen, M O Kanter, C E Keppel, J Kilmer, M Kordosky, A H Krajeski, S A Kulagin, T Le, H Lee, A G Leister, G Locke, G Maggi, E Maher, S Manly, W A Mann, C M Marshall, K S McFarland, C L McGivern, A M McGowan, A Mislivec, J G Morfín, J Mousseau, D Naples, J K Nelson, G Niculescu, I Niculescu, N Ochoa, C D O'Connor, J Olsen, B Osmanov, J Osta, J L Palomino, V Paolone, J Park, C E Patrick, G N Perdue, C Peña, L Rakotondravohitra, R D Ransome, H Ray, L Ren, P A Rodrigues, C Rude, K E Sassin, H Schellman, D W Schmitz, R M Schneider, E C Schulte, C Simon, F D Snider, M C Snyder, J T Sobczyk, C J Solano Salinas, N Tagg, W Tan, B G Tice, G Tzanakos, J P Velásquez, J Walding, T Walton, J Wolcott, B A Wolthuis, N Woodward, G Zavala, H B Zeng, D Zhang, L Y Zhu, B P Ziemer; MINERvA Collaboration

Affiliation

¹ Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.

PMID: 23889388
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.022501

Abstract

We have isolated ν(μ) charged-current quasielastic (QE) interactions occurring in the segmented scintillator tracking region of the MINERvA detector running in the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. We measure the flux-averaged differential cross section, dσ/dQ², and compare to several theoretical models of QE scattering. Good agreement is obtained with a model where the nucleon axial mass, M(A), is set to 0.99 GeV/c² but the nucleon vector form factors are modified to account for the observed enhancement, relative to the free nucleon case, of the cross section for the exchange of transversely polarized photons in electron-nucleus scattering. Our data at higher Q² favor this interpretation over an alternative in which the axial mass is increased.