First Observation of Coherent $\pi^0$ Production in Neutrino Nucleus Interactions with $E_{\nu}<$ 2 GeV
Abstract
The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab has amassed the largest sample to date of s produced in neutral current (NC) neutrino-nucleus interactions at low energy. This paper reports a measurement of the momentum distribution of s produced in mineral oil (CH) and the first observation of coherent production below 2 GeV. In the forward direction, the yield of events observed above the expectation for resonant production is attributed primarily to coherent production off carbon, but may also include a small contribution from diffractive production on hydrogen. Integrated over the MiniBooNE neutrino flux, the sum of the NC coherent and diffractive modes is found to be (19.5 1.1 (stat) 2.5 (sys))% of all exclusive NC production at MiniBooNE. These measurements are of immediate utility because they quantify an important background to MiniBooNE's search for oscillations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0803.3423,
title = {First Observation of Coherent $\pi^0$ Production in Neutrino Nucleus Interactions with $E_{\nu}<$ 2 GeV},
author = {The MiniBooNE Collaboration and A. A. Aguilar-Arevalo and C. E. Anderson and A. O. Bazarko and S. J. Brice and B. C. Brown and L. Bugel and J. Cao and L. Coney and J. M. Conrad and D. C. Cox and A. Curioni and Z. Djurcic and D. A. Finley and B. T. Fleming and R. Ford and F. G. Garcia and G. T. Garvey and C. Green and J. A. Green and T. L. Hart and E. Hawker and R. Imlay and R. A. Johnson and G. Karagiori and P. Kasper and T. Katori and T. Kobilarcik and I. Kourbanis and S. Koutsoliotas and E. M. Laird and S. K. Linden and J. M. Link and Y. Liu and Y. Liu and W. C. Louis and K. B. M. Mahn and W. Marsh and P. S. Martin and G. McGregor and W. Metcalf and P. D. Meyers and F. Mills and G. B. Mills and J. Monroe and C. D. Moore and R. H. Nelson and V. T. Nguyen and P. Nienaber and J. A. Nowak and S. Ouedraogo and R. B. Patterson and D. Perevalov and C. C. Polly and E. Prebys and J. L. Raaf and H. Ray and B. P. Roe and A. D. Russell and V. Sandberg and R. Schirato and D. Schmitz and M. H. Shaevitz and F. C. Shoemaker and D. Smith and M. Soderberg and M. Sorel and P. Spentzouris and I. Stancu and R. J. Stefanski and M. Sung and H. A. Tanaka and R. Tayloe and M. Tzanov and R. Van de Water and M. O. Wascko and D. H. White and M. J. Wilking and H. J. Yang and G. P. Zeller and E. D. Zimmerman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.3423},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
Submitted to Phys. Lett. B