Published March 1, 2023 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Measurement of the double-differential muon-neutrino charged-current inclusive cross section in the NOvA near detector

Creators

Abstract

We report cross-section measurements of the final-state muon kinematics for ν_μ charged-current interactions in the NOvA near detector using an accumulated 8.09×10²⁰ protons on target in the NuMI beam. We present the results as a double-differential cross section in the observed outgoing muon energy and angle, as well as single-differential cross sections in the derived neutrino energy, E_ν, and square of the four-momentum transfer, Q². We compare the results to inclusive cross-section predictions from various neutrino event generators via χ² calculations using a covariance matrix that accounts for bin-to-bin correlations of systematic uncertainties. These comparisons show a clear discrepancy between the data and each of the tested predictions at forward muon angle and low Q², indicating a missing suppression of the cross section in current neutrino-nucleus scattering models.

Additional Information

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3. This document was prepared by the NOvA Collaboration using the resources of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, HEP User Facility. Fermilab is managed by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC (FRA), acting under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy; the U.S. National Science Foundation; the Department of Science and Technology, India; the European Research Council; the MSMT CR, GA UK, Czech Republic; the RAS, RMES, and RFBR, Russia; CNPq and FAPEG, Brazil; UKRI, STFC and the Royal Society, United Kingdom; and the state and University of Minnesota. We are grateful for the contributions of the staff

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevD.107.052011.pdf

Files

PhysRevD.107.052011.pdf

Files (3.9 MB)

Name Size
md5:752546da04586e6b7835fe658a5599ef
3.9 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
122252
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20230712-111135000.5

Funding

Department of Energy (DOE)
DE-AC02-07CH11359
NSF
Department of Science and Technology (India)
European Research Council (ERC)
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Czech Republic)
Charles University
Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Ministry of Education and Science
Russian Foundation for Basic Research
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG)
UK Research and Innovation
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Royal Society
State of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
SCOAP3

Dates

Created
2023-07-18
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2023-07-18
Created from EPrint's last_modified field