First Simultaneous Measurement of Differential Muon-Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Sections on Argon for Final States with and without Protons Using MicroBooNE Data

Journal Article · 24 July 2024 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.041801 · OSTI ID:2474698

Abratenko, P.; Alterkait, O.; Andrade Aldana, D.; Arellano, L.; Asaadi, J.; Ashkenazi, A.; Balasubramanian, S.; Baller, B.; Barr, G.; Barrow, D.; Barrow, J.; Basque, V.; Benevides Rodrigues, O.; Berkman, S.; Bhanderi, A.; Bhat, A.; Bhattacharya, M.; Bishai, M.; Blake, A.; Bogart, B. ; Bolton, T.; Book, J. Y.; Brunetti, M. B.; Camilleri, L.; Cao, Y.; Caratelli, D.; Cavanna, F.; Cerati, G.; Chappell, A.; Chen, Y.; Conrad, J. M.; Convery, M.; Cooper-Troendle, L.; Crespo-Anadón, J. I.; Cross, R.; Del Tutto, M.; Dennis, S. R.; Detje, P.; Devitt, A.; Diurba, R.; Djurcic, Z.; Dorrill, R.; Duffy, K.; Dytman, S.; Eberly, B.; Englezos, P.; Ereditato, A.; Evans, J. J.; Fine, R.; Finnerud, O. G.; Foreman, W.; Fleming, B. T.; Franco, D.; Furmanski, A. P.; Gao, F.; Garcia-Gamez, D.; Gardiner, S.; Ge, G.; Gollapinni, S.; Gramellini, E.; Green, P.; Greenlee, H.; Gu, L.; Gu, W.; Guenette, R.; Guzowski, P.; Hagaman, L.; Hen, O.; Hilgenberg, C.; Horton-Smith, G. A.; Imani, Z.; Irwin, B.; Ismail, M. S.; James, C.; Ji, X.; Jo, J. H.; Johnson, R. A.; Jwa, Y. -J.; Kalra, D.; Kamp, N.; Karagiorgi, G.; Ketchum, W.; Kirby, M.; Kobilarcik, T.; Kreslo, I.; Leibovitch, M. B.; Lepetic, I.; Li, J. -Y.; Li, K.; Li, Y.; Lin, K.; Littlejohn, B. R.; Liu, H.; Louis, W. C.; Luo, X.; Mariani, C.; Marsden, D.; Marshall, J.; Martinez, N.; Martinez Caicedo, D. A.; Martynenko, S.; Mastbaum, A.; Mawby, I.; McConkey, N.; Meddage, V.; Micallef, J.; Miller, K.; Mogan, A.; Mohayai, T.; Mooney, M.; Moor, A. F.; Moore, C. D.; Mora Lepin, L.; Moudgalya, M. M.; Mulleriababu, S.; Naples, D.; Navrer-Agasson, A.; Nayak, N.; Nebot-Guinot, M.; Nowak, J.; Oza, N.; Palamara, O.; Pallat, N.; Paolone, V.; Papadopoulou, A.; Papavassiliou, V.; Parkinson, H. B.; Pate, S. F.; Patel, N.; Pavlovic, Z.; Piasetzky, E.; Pophale, I.; Qian, X.; Raaf, J. L.; Radeka, V.; Rafique, A.; Reggiani-Guzzo, M.; Ren, L.; Rochester, L.; Rodriguez Rondon, J.; Rosenberg, M.; Ross-Lonergan, M.; Rudolf von Rohr, C.; Safa, I.; Scanavini, G.; Schmitz, D. W.; Schukraft, A.; Seligman, W.; Shaevitz, M. H.; Sharankova, R.; Shi, J.; Snider, E. L.; Soderberg, M.; Söldner-Rembold, S.; Spitz, J.; Stancari, M.; John, J. St.; Strauss, T.; Szelc, A. M.; Tang, W.; Taniuchi, N.; Terao, K.; Thorpe, C.; Torbunov, D.; Totani, D.; Toups, M.; Tsai, Y. -T.; Tyler, J.; Uchida, M. A.; Usher, T.; Viren, B.; Weber, M.; Wei, H.; White, A. J.; Wolbers, S.; Wongjirad, T.; Wospakrik, M.; Wresilo, K.; Wu, W.; Yandel, E.; Yang, T.; Yates, L. E.; Yu, H. W.; Zeller, G. P.; Zennamo, J.; Zhang, C.

We report the first double-differential neutrino-argon cross section measurement made simultaneously for final states with and without protons for the inclusive muon neutrino charged-current interaction channel. The proton kinematics of this channel are further explored with a differential cross section measurement as a function of the leading proton’s kinetic energy that extends across the detection threshold. These measurements use data collected with the MicroBooNE detector from $6.4\times {10}^{20}$ protons on target from the Fermilab booster neutrino beam with a mean neutrino energy of $\sim 0.8\mathrm{GeV}$ . Extensive data-driven model validation utilizing the conditional constraint formalism is employed. This motivates enlarging the uncertainties with an empirical reweighting approach to minimize the possibility of extracting biased cross section results. The extracted nominal flux-averaged cross sections are compared to widely used event generator predictions revealing severe mismodeling of final states without protons for muon neutrino charged-current interactions, possibly from insufficient treatment of final state interactions. These measurements provide a wealth of new information useful for improving event generators which will enhance the sensitivity of precision measurements in neutrino experiments. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
• Grant/Contract Number: NONE; AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 2474698
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 133; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Publisher: American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English