A sub-GeV charged-current quasi-elastic $$\nu_{\mu}$$ cross-section on carbon at SciBooNE
- Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
Neutrino-nucleus charged-current quasi-elastic scattering is the signal interaction used by many neutrino oscillation experiments. For muon disappearance studies the signal mode is νμn → μp. Modern oscillation experiments, such as T2K, produce neutrino beams with peak beam energies of order a few-GeV. It is therefore vitally important to have accurate measurements of the charged-current quasi-elastic crosssection for future neutrino oscillation experiments. Neutrino-nucleus cross-sections in the few-GeV region are not well understood, with the main uncertainties coming from understanding of the neutrino beam flux and the final state interactions within nuclei. SciBooNE is a sub-GeV neutrino-nucleus cross-section experiment based at Fermilab, Batavia, USA, with the goal to measure neutrino cross-sections with precision of order 5%. SciBooNE took data from June 2007 until August 2008, in total 0.99×1020 and 1.53×1020 protons on target were collected in neutrino and anti-neutrino mode, respectively. In this thesis a νμ charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) cross-section contained within the SciBar sub-detector is presented. A method to tag muons in SciBar was developed and three samples were isolated. An excess in backwards tracks in the one-track sample is observed. A Poisson maximum likelihood is used to extract the CCQE cross-section. The fit was applied using a basic fit parameter model, successfully used to obtain the cross-section in the SciBar-MRD matched CCQE analysis. This method was found to be insufficient in describing the data for the SciBarcontained CCQE analysis. By adding two migration parameters the cross-section was calculated to be 1.004 ± 0.031 (stat)+0.101 -0.150(sys) × 10-38 cm2/neutron, excluding backwards tracks with a χ2 = 203.8/76 d.o.f. and 1.083 ± 0.030(stat)+0.115 -0.177(sys) × 10-38 cm2/neutron, including backwards tracks with a χ2 = 659.8/133 d.o.f. Only neutrino beam and detector systematics have been considered. Further study of the SciBar-contained sample is suggested, introducing additional fit parameters and considering the remaining systematics. The end goal is to extract a SciBooNE CCQE cross-section using the SciBar-contained and SciBar-MRD matched samples.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 979710
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-THESIS-2009-57; TRN: US1003381
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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