Simultaneous Measurement of Proton and Lepton Kinematics in Quasielasticlike νμ-Hydrocarbon Interactions from 2 to 20 GeV

Neutrino charged-current quasielastic-like scattering, a reaction category extensively used in neutrino oscillation measurements, probes nuclear effects that govern neutrino-nucleus interactions. This Letter reports the first measurement of the triple-differential cross section for nu(mu) quasielastic-like reactions using the hydrocarbon medium of the MINERvA detector exposed to a wideband beam spanning 2 <= E-nu <= 20 GeV. The measurement maps the correlations among transverse and longitudinal muon momenta and summed proton kinetic energies, and compares them to predictions from a state-of-art simulation. Discrepancies arc observed that likely reflect shortfalls with modeling of pion and nucleon intranuclear scattering and/or spectator nucleon ejection from struck nuclei. The separate determination of leptonic and hadronic variables can inform experimental approaches to neutrino-energy estimation.

Automated summary

This study reports the first measurement of the triple-differential cross section for neutrino quasielastic-like reactions using the MINERvA detector. Discrepancies with simulation predictions were observed, potentially due to inaccuracies in modeling certain scattering processes.