Measurement of the Neutrino Neutral-Current Elastic Differential Cross Section

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:988904

Aguilar-Arevalo, A A; Anderson, C E; Bazarko, A O; Brice, S J; Brown, B C; Bugel, L; Cao, J; Coney, L; Conrad, J M; Cox, D C; Curioni, A

We report a measurement of the flux-averaged neutral-current elastic differential cross section for neutrinos scattering on mineral oil (CH{sub 2}) as a function of four-momentum transferred squared, Q{sup 2}. It is obtained by measuring the kinematics of recoiling nucleons with kinetic energy greater than 50 MeV which are readily detected in MiniBooNE. This differential cross-section distribution is fit with fixed nucleon form factors apart from an axial mass, M{sub A}, that provides a best fit for M{sub A} = 1.39 {+-} 0.11 GeV. Using the data from the charged-current neutrino interaction sample, a ratio of neutral-current to charged-current quasi-elastic cross sections as a function of Q{sup 2} has been measured. Additionally, single protons with kinetic energies above 350 MeV can be distinguished from neutrons and multiple nucleon events. Using this marker, the strange quark contribution to the neutral-current axial vector form factor at Q{sup 2} = 0, {Delta}s, is found to be {Delta}s = 0.08{+-} 0.26.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 988904
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-10-250-E; arXiv eprint number arXiv:1007.4730
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CROSS SECTIONS
DIFFERENTIAL CROSS SECTIONS
DISTRIBUTION
Experiment-HEP
FORM FACTORS
KINETIC ENERGY
KINETICS
NEUTRINOS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEONS
PROTONS
QUARKS
SCATTERING
VECTORS