Abstract
Kinematic distributions from an inclusive sample of 1.41×106 charged-current νμ interactions on iron, obtained using the MINOS near detector exposed to a wide-band beam with peak flux at 3 GeV, are compared to a conventional treatment of neutrino scattering within a Fermi gas nucleus. Results are used to guide the selection of a subsample enriched in quasielastic νμFe interactions, containing an estimated 123,000 quasielastic events of incident energies 1<Eν<8GeV, with 〈Eν〉=2.79GeV. Four additional subsamples representing topological and kinematic sideband regions to quasielastic scattering are also selected for the purpose of evaluating backgrounds. Comparisons using subsample distributions in four-momentum transfer Q2 show the Monte Carlo model to be inadequate at low Q2. Its shortcomings are remedied via inclusion of a Q2-dependent suppression function for baryon resonance production, developed from the data. A chi-square fit of the resulting Monte Carlo simulation to the shape of the Q2 distribution for the quasielastic-enriched sample is carried out with the axial-vector mass MA of the dipole axial-vector form factor of the neutron as a free parameter. The effective MA which best describes the data is 1.23-0.09+0.13(fit)-0.15+0.12(syst)GeV.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 012005 |
Journal | Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology |
Volume | 91 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 7 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 American Physical Society.