Measurement of neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Abstract
Neutron production in giga electron volt–scale neutrino interactions is a poorly studied process. We have measured the neutron multiplicities in atmospheric neutrino interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment and compared them to the prediction of a Monte Carlo simulation using genie and a minimally modified version of geant4. We analyzed 837 days of exposure corresponding to Phase I, using pure heavy water, and Phase II, using a mixture of Cl in heavy water. Neutrons produced in atmospheric neutrino interactions were identified with an efficiency of 15.3% and 44.3%, for Phases I and II respectively. The neutron production is measured as a function of the visible energy of the neutrino interaction and, for charged current quasielastic interaction candidates, also as a function of the neutrino energy. This study is also performed by classifying the complete sample into two pairs of event categories: charged current quasielastic and non charged current quasielastic, and νμ and νe. Results show good overall agreement between data and Monte Carlo for both phases, with some small tension with a statistical significance below 2σ for some intermediate energies.
- Authors:
- more »
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); USDOE Office of Science (SC). Nuclear Physics (NP); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Contributing Org.:
- SNO Collaboration
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1526777
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1544742; OSTI ID: 1561923; OSTI ID: 1570214; OSTI ID: 1658856; OSTI ID: 1658948
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-19-22948; arXiv:1904.01148; FERMILAB-PUB-19-515-ESH
Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010; PRVDAQ; 112007
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001; AC02-05CH11231; AC02-07CH11359; FG02-97ER41033; FG02-97ER41041
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review D Journal Volume: 99 Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; neutrino
Citation Formats
Aharmim, B., Ahmed, S. N., Anthony, A. E., Barros, N., Beier, E. W., Bellerive, A., Beltran, B., Bergevin, M., Biller, S. D., Bonventre, R., Boudjemline, K., Boulay, M. G., Cai, B., Callaghan, E. J., Caravaca, J., Chan, Y. D., Chauhan, D., Chen, M., Cleveland, B. T., Cox, G. A., Dai, X., Deng, H., Descamps, F. B., Detwiler, J. A., Doe, P. J., Doucas, G., Drouin, P. -L., Dunford, M., Elliott, S. R., Evans, H. C., Ewan, G. T., Farine, J., Fergani, H., Fleurot, F., Ford, R. J., Formaggio, J. A., Gagnon, N., Gilje, K., Goon, J. TM., Graham, K., Guillian, E., Habib, S., Hahn, R. L., Hallin, A. L., Hallman, E. D., Harvey, P. J., Hazama, R., Heintzelman, W. J., Heise, J., Helmer, R. L., Hime, A., Howard, C., Huang, M., Jagam, P., Jamieson, B., Jelley, N. A., Jerkins, M., Keeter, K. J., Klein, J. R., Kormos, L. L., Kos, M., Krüger, A., Kraus, C., Krauss, C. B., Kutter, T., Kyba, C. C. M., Land, B. J., Lange, R., Law, J., Lawson, I. T., Lesko, K. T., Leslie, J. R., Levine, I., Loach, J. C., MacLellan, R., Majerus, S., Mak, H. B., Maneira, J., Martin, R. D., Mastbaum, A., McCauley, N., McDonald, A. B., McGee, S. R., Miller, M. L., Monreal, B., Monroe, J., Nickel, B. G., Noble, A. J., O’Keeffe, H. M., Oblath, N. S., Okada, C. E., Ollerhead, R. W., Orebi Gann, G. D., Oser, S. M., Ott, R. A., Peeters, S. J. M., Poon, A. W. P., Prior, G., Reitzner, S. D., Rielage, K., Robertson, B. C., Robertson, R. G. H., Schwendener, M. H., Secrest, J. A., Seibert, S. R., Simard, O., Sinclair, D., Singh, J., Skensved, P., Smiley, M., Sonley, T. J., Stonehill, L. C., Tešić, G., Tolich, N., Tsui, T., Van Berg, R., VanDevender, B. A., Virtue, C. J., Wall, B. L., Waller, D., Wan Chan Tseung, H., Wark, D. L., Wendland, J., West, N., Wilkerson, J. F., Wilson, J. R., Winchester, T., Wright, A., Yeh, M., Zhang, F., Zuber, K., and SNO Collaboration. Measurement of neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.112007.
Aharmim, B., Ahmed, S. N., Anthony, A. E., Barros, N., Beier, E. W., Bellerive, A., Beltran, B., Bergevin, M., Biller, S. D., Bonventre, R., Boudjemline, K., Boulay, M. G., Cai, B., Callaghan, E. J., Caravaca, J., Chan, Y. D., Chauhan, D., Chen, M., Cleveland, B. T., Cox, G. A., Dai, X., Deng, H., Descamps, F. B., Detwiler, J. A., Doe, P. J., Doucas, G., Drouin, P. -L., Dunford, M., Elliott, S. R., Evans, H. C., Ewan, G. T., Farine, J., Fergani, H., Fleurot, F., Ford, R. J., Formaggio, J. A., Gagnon, N., Gilje, K., Goon, J. TM., Graham, K., Guillian, E., Habib, S., Hahn, R. L., Hallin, A. L., Hallman, E. D., Harvey, P. J., Hazama, R., Heintzelman, W. J., Heise, J., Helmer, R. L., Hime, A., Howard, C., Huang, M., Jagam, P., Jamieson, B., Jelley, N. A., Jerkins, M., Keeter, K. J., Klein, J. R., Kormos, L. L., Kos, M., Krüger, A., Kraus, C., Krauss, C. B., Kutter, T., Kyba, C. C. M., Land, B. J., Lange, R., Law, J., Lawson, I. T., Lesko, K. T., Leslie, J. R., Levine, I., Loach, J. C., MacLellan, R., Majerus, S., Mak, H. B., Maneira, J., Martin, R. D., Mastbaum, A., McCauley, N., McDonald, A. B., McGee, S. R., Miller, M. L., Monreal, B., Monroe, J., Nickel, B. G., Noble, A. J., O’Keeffe, H. M., Oblath, N. S., Okada, C. E., Ollerhead, R. W., Orebi Gann, G. D., Oser, S. M., Ott, R. A., Peeters, S. J. M., Poon, A. W. P., Prior, G., Reitzner, S. D., Rielage, K., Robertson, B. C., Robertson, R. G. H., Schwendener, M. H., Secrest, J. A., Seibert, S. R., Simard, O., Sinclair, D., Singh, J., Skensved, P., Smiley, M., Sonley, T. J., Stonehill, L. C., Tešić, G., Tolich, N., Tsui, T., Van Berg, R., VanDevender, B. A., Virtue, C. J., Wall, B. L., Waller, D., Wan Chan Tseung, H., Wark, D. L., Wendland, J., West, N., Wilkerson, J. F., Wilson, J. R., Winchester, T., Wright, A., Yeh, M., Zhang, F., Zuber, K., & SNO Collaboration. Measurement of neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.112007
Aharmim, B., Ahmed, S. N., Anthony, A. E., Barros, N., Beier, E. W., Bellerive, A., Beltran, B., Bergevin, M., Biller, S. D., Bonventre, R., Boudjemline, K., Boulay, M. G., Cai, B., Callaghan, E. J., Caravaca, J., Chan, Y. D., Chauhan, D., Chen, M., Cleveland, B. T., Cox, G. A., Dai, X., Deng, H., Descamps, F. B., Detwiler, J. A., Doe, P. J., Doucas, G., Drouin, P. -L., Dunford, M., Elliott, S. R., Evans, H. C., Ewan, G. T., Farine, J., Fergani, H., Fleurot, F., Ford, R. J., Formaggio, J. A., Gagnon, N., Gilje, K., Goon, J. TM., Graham, K., Guillian, E., Habib, S., Hahn, R. L., Hallin, A. L., Hallman, E. D., Harvey, P. J., Hazama, R., Heintzelman, W. J., Heise, J., Helmer, R. L., Hime, A., Howard, C., Huang, M., Jagam, P., Jamieson, B., Jelley, N. A., Jerkins, M., Keeter, K. J., Klein, J. R., Kormos, L. L., Kos, M., Krüger, A., Kraus, C., Krauss, C. B., Kutter, T., Kyba, C. C. M., Land, B. J., Lange, R., Law, J., Lawson, I. T., Lesko, K. T., Leslie, J. R., Levine, I., Loach, J. C., MacLellan, R., Majerus, S., Mak, H. B., Maneira, J., Martin, R. D., Mastbaum, A., McCauley, N., McDonald, A. B., McGee, S. R., Miller, M. L., Monreal, B., Monroe, J., Nickel, B. G., Noble, A. J., O’Keeffe, H. M., Oblath, N. S., Okada, C. E., Ollerhead, R. W., Orebi Gann, G. D., Oser, S. M., Ott, R. A., Peeters, S. J. M., Poon, A. W. P., Prior, G., Reitzner, S. D., Rielage, K., Robertson, B. C., Robertson, R. G. H., Schwendener, M. H., Secrest, J. A., Seibert, S. R., Simard, O., Sinclair, D., Singh, J., Skensved, P., Smiley, M., Sonley, T. J., Stonehill, L. C., Tešić, G., Tolich, N., Tsui, T., Van Berg, R., VanDevender, B. A., Virtue, C. J., Wall, B. L., Waller, D., Wan Chan Tseung, H., Wark, D. L., Wendland, J., West, N., Wilkerson, J. F., Wilson, J. R., Winchester, T., Wright, A., Yeh, M., Zhang, F., Zuber, K., and SNO Collaboration. Tue .
"Measurement of neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.112007.
@article{osti_1526777,
title = {Measurement of neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory},
author = {Aharmim, B. and Ahmed, S. N. and Anthony, A. E. and Barros, N. and Beier, E. W. and Bellerive, A. and Beltran, B. and Bergevin, M. and Biller, S. D. and Bonventre, R. and Boudjemline, K. and Boulay, M. G. and Cai, B. and Callaghan, E. J. and Caravaca, J. and Chan, Y. D. and Chauhan, D. and Chen, M. and Cleveland, B. T. and Cox, G. A. and Dai, X. and Deng, H. and Descamps, F. B. and Detwiler, J. A. and Doe, P. J. and Doucas, G. and Drouin, P. -L. and Dunford, M. and Elliott, S. R. and Evans, H. C. and Ewan, G. T. and Farine, J. and Fergani, H. and Fleurot, F. and Ford, R. J. and Formaggio, J. A. and Gagnon, N. and Gilje, K. and Goon, J. TM. and Graham, K. and Guillian, E. and Habib, S. and Hahn, R. L. and Hallin, A. L. and Hallman, E. D. and Harvey, P. J. and Hazama, R. and Heintzelman, W. J. and Heise, J. and Helmer, R. L. and Hime, A. and Howard, C. and Huang, M. and Jagam, P. and Jamieson, B. and Jelley, N. A. and Jerkins, M. and Keeter, K. J. and Klein, J. R. and Kormos, L. L. and Kos, M. and Krüger, A. and Kraus, C. and Krauss, C. B. and Kutter, T. and Kyba, C. C. M. and Land, B. J. and Lange, R. and Law, J. and Lawson, I. T. and Lesko, K. T. and Leslie, J. R. and Levine, I. and Loach, J. C. and MacLellan, R. and Majerus, S. and Mak, H. B. and Maneira, J. and Martin, R. D. and Mastbaum, A. and McCauley, N. and McDonald, A. B. and McGee, S. R. and Miller, M. L. and Monreal, B. and Monroe, J. and Nickel, B. G. and Noble, A. J. and O’Keeffe, H. M. and Oblath, N. S. and Okada, C. E. and Ollerhead, R. W. and Orebi Gann, G. D. and Oser, S. M. and Ott, R. A. and Peeters, S. J. M. and Poon, A. W. P. and Prior, G. and Reitzner, S. D. and Rielage, K. and Robertson, B. C. and Robertson, R. G. H. and Schwendener, M. H. and Secrest, J. A. and Seibert, S. R. and Simard, O. and Sinclair, D. and Singh, J. and Skensved, P. and Smiley, M. and Sonley, T. J. and Stonehill, L. C. and Tešić, G. and Tolich, N. and Tsui, T. and Van Berg, R. and VanDevender, B. A. and Virtue, C. J. and Wall, B. L. and Waller, D. and Wan Chan Tseung, H. and Wark, D. L. and Wendland, J. and West, N. and Wilkerson, J. F. and Wilson, J. R. and Winchester, T. and Wright, A. and Yeh, M. and Zhang, F. and Zuber, K. and SNO Collaboration},
abstractNote = {Neutron production in giga electron volt–scale neutrino interactions is a poorly studied process. We have measured the neutron multiplicities in atmospheric neutrino interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment and compared them to the prediction of a Monte Carlo simulation using genie and a minimally modified version of geant4. We analyzed 837 days of exposure corresponding to Phase I, using pure heavy water, and Phase II, using a mixture of Cl in heavy water. Neutrons produced in atmospheric neutrino interactions were identified with an efficiency of 15.3% and 44.3%, for Phases I and II respectively. The neutron production is measured as a function of the visible energy of the neutrino interaction and, for charged current quasielastic interaction candidates, also as a function of the neutrino energy. This study is also performed by classifying the complete sample into two pairs of event categories: charged current quasielastic and non charged current quasielastic, and νμ and νe. Results show good overall agreement between data and Monte Carlo for both phases, with some small tension with a statistical significance below 2σ for some intermediate energies.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.99.112007},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 11,
volume = 99,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Tue Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.112007
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Design, calibration, and performance of the MINERvA detector
journal, April 2014
- Aliaga, L.; Bagby, L.; Baldin, B.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 743
Nuclear Fermi Momenta from Quasielastic Electron Scattering
journal, February 1971
- Moniz, E. J.; Sick, I.; Whitney, R. R.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 26, Issue 8
The extended-track event reconstruction for MiniBooNE
journal, September 2009
- Patterson, R. B.; Laird, E. M.; Liu, Y.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 608, Issue 1
Search for Electron Neutrino Appearance at the Scale
journal, June 2007
- Aguilar-Arevalo, A. A.; Bazarko, A. O.; Brice, S. J.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 23
A hadronization model for few-GeV neutrino interactions
journal, August 2009
- Yang, T.; Andreopoulos, C.; Gallagher, H.
- The European Physical Journal C, Vol. 63, Issue 1
Muon-induced neutron production and detection with GEANT4 and FLUKA
journal, June 2005
- Araújo, H. M.; Kudryavtsev, V. A.; Spooner, N. J. C.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 545, Issue 1-2
The T2K experiment
journal, December 2011
- Abe, K.; Abgrall, N.; Aihara, H.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 659, Issue 1
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
journal, July 2000
- Boger, J.; Hahn, R. L.; Rowley, J. K.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 449, Issue 1-2
Physics potential of a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using a J-PARC neutrino beam and Hyper-Kamiokande
journal, May 2015
- Abe, K.; Aihara, H.; Andreopoulos, C.
- Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 5
ROOT — An object oriented data analysis framework
journal, April 1997
- Brun, Rene; Rademakers, Fons
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 389, Issue 1-2
Gamma ray energies and 36Cl level scheme from the reaction 35Cl(n, γ)
journal, September 1982
- Krusche, B.; Lieb, K. P.; Daniel, H.
- Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 386, Issue 2, p. 245-268
Three-dimensional calculation of atmospheric neutrinos
journal, July 2004
- Barr, G. D.; Gaisser, T. K.; Lipari, P.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 70, Issue 2
The GENIE neutrino Monte Carlo generator
journal, February 2010
- Andreopoulos, C.; Bell, A.; Bhattacharya, D.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 614, Issue 1
Geant4 validation of neutron production on thick targets bombarded with 120 GeV protons
journal, September 2015
- Sabra, Mohammad S.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 358
Use of the Hough transformation to detect lines and curves in pictures
journal, January 1972
- Duda, Richard O.; Hart, Peter E.
- Communications of the ACM, Vol. 15, Issue 1
The 16N calibration source for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
journal, April 2002
- Dragowsky, M. R.; Hamer, A.; Chan, Y. D.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 481, Issue 1-3
Low-energy-threshold analysis of the Phase I and Phase II data sets of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
journal, May 2010
- Aharmim, B.; Ahmed, S. N.; Anthony, A. E.
- Physical Review C, Vol. 81, Issue 5
Geant4—a simulation toolkit
journal, July 2003
- Agostinelli, S.; Allison, J.; Amako, K.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 506, Issue 3
First study of neutron tagging with a water Cherenkov detector
journal, May 2009
- Watanabe, H.; Zhang, H.; Abe, K.
- Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 31, Issue 4
Path length distributions of atmospheric neutrinos
journal, February 1998
- Gaisser, T. K.; Stanev, Todor
- Physical Review D, Vol. 57, Issue 3
Electron energy spectra, fluxes, and day-night asymmetries of B solar neutrinos from measurements with NaCl dissolved in the heavy-water detector at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
journal, November 2005
- Aharmim, B.; Ahmed, S. N.; Anthony, A. E.
- Physical Review C, Vol. 72, Issue 5
A Hadronization Model for the MINOS Experiment
conference, January 2007
- Yang, T.; Andreopoulos, C.; Gallagher, H.
- NEUTRINO-NUCLEUS INTERACTIONS IN THE FEW-GEV REGION: NuInt07, AIP Conference Proceedings
Improving the T2K Oscillation Analysis With fiTQun: A New Maximum-Likelihood Event Reconstruction for Super-Kamiokande
journal, September 2017
- Missert, Andrew D.
- Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 888
Search for invisible modes of nucleon decay in water with the SNO+ detector
journal, February 2019
- Anderson, M.; Andringa, S.; Arushanova, E.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 99, Issue 3
First calculation of cosmic-ray muon spallation backgrounds for MeV astrophysical neutrino signals in Super-Kamiokande
journal, April 2014
- Li, Shirley Weishi; Beacom, John F.
- Physical Review C, Vol. 89, Issue 4