Evidence for Neutral-Current Diffractive π

The MINERvA experiment observes an excess of events containing electromagnetic showers relative to the expectation from Monte Carlo simulations in neutral-current neutrino interactions with mean beam energy of 4.5 GeV on a hydrocarbon target. The excess is characterized and found to be consistent with neutral-current π^{0} production with a broad energy distribution peaking at 7 GeV and a total cross section of 0.26±0.02(stat.)±0.08(sys.)×10^{-39} cm^{2}. The angular distribution, electromagnetic shower energy, and spatial distribution of the energy depositions of the excess are consistent with expectations from neutrino neutral-current diffractive π^{0} production from hydrogen in the hydrocarbon target. These data comprise the first direct experimental observation and constraint for a reaction that poses an important background process in neutrino-oscillation experiments searching for ν_{µ} to ν_{e} oscillations.

Measurement of Electron Neutrino Quasielastic and Quasielasticlike Scattering on Hydrocarbon at ⟨E_{ν}⟩=3.6 GeV.

The first direct measurement of electron neutrino quasielastic and quasielasticlike scattering on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region of incident neutrino energy has been carried out using the MINERvA detector in the NuMI beam at Fermilab. The flux-integrated differential cross sections in the electron production angle, electron energy, and Q^{2} are presented. The ratio of the quasielastic, flux-integrated differential cross section in Q^{2} for ν_{e} with that of similarly selected ν_{µ}-induced events from the same exposure is used to probe assumptions that underpin conventional treatments of charged-current ν_{e} interactions used by long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. The data are found to be consistent with lepton universality and are well described by the predictions of the neutrino event generator GENIE.

Measurement of coherent production of π(±) in neutrino and antineutrino beams on carbon from Eν of 1.5 to 20 GeV.

Neutrino-induced coherent charged pion production on nuclei νµA→µ(±)π(∓)A is a rare, inelastic interaction in which a small squared four-momentum |t| is transferred to the recoil nucleus, leaving it intact in the reaction. In the scintillator tracker of MINERvA, we remove events with evidence of particles from nuclear breakup and reconstruct |t| from the final-state pion and muon. We select low |t| events to isolate a sample rich in coherent candidates. By selecting low |t| events, we produce a model-independent measurement of the differential cross section for coherent scattering of neutrinos and antineutrinos on carbon. We find poor agreement with the predicted kinematics in neutrino generators used by current oscillation experiments.