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Title: Measurement of K+ production cross section by 8 GeV protons using high energy neutrino interactions in the SciBooNE detector

Journal Article · · Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

The SciBooNE Collaboration reports K+ production cross section and rate measurements using high energy daughter muon neutrino scattering data off the SciBar polystyrene (C8H8) target in the SciBooNE detector. The K+ mesons are produced by 8 GeV protons striking a beryllium target in Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam line (BNB). Using observed neutrino and antineutrino events in SciBooNE, we measure d2σ/dpdΩ = (5.34 ±0.76) mb/(GeV/c x sr) for p + Be =K+ + X at mean K+ energy of 3.9 GeV and angle (with respect to the proton beam direction) of 3.7 degrees, corresponding to the selected K+ sample. Compared to Monte Carlo predictions using previous higher energy K+ production measurements, this measurement, which uses the NUANCE neutrino interaction generator, is consistent with a normalization factor of 0.85 ± 0.12. This agreement is evidence that the extrapolation of the higher energy K+ measurements to an 8 GeV beam energy using Feynman scaling is valid. This measurement reduces the error on the K+ production cross section from 40% to 14%.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Contributing Organization:
SciBooNE
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1015840
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-11-221-PPD; arXiv:1105.2871; oai:inspirehep.net:900203; TRN: US1102927
Journal Information:
Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, Vol. 84, Issue 1; ISSN 1550-7998 
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English