No Arabic abstract
The first measurements of antineutrino charged-current quasielastic ($ umub$ CCQE, $ umu + N to mup + N$) and neutral-current elastic ($ umub$ NCE, $ umu + N to umu + N$) cross sections with $< E_{bar{ u}} >$ $<$ 1 GeV are presented. To maximize the precision of these measurements, many data-driven background measurements were executed, including a first demonstration of charge separation using a non-magnetized detector. Apart from extending our knowledge of antineutrino interactions by probing a new energy range, these measurements constrain signal and background processes for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments and also carry implications for intra-nuclear interactions.
MiniBooNE anti-neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) data is compared to model predictions. The main background of neutrino-induced events is examined first, where three independent techniques are employed. Results indicate the neutrino flux is consistent with a uniform reduction of $sim$ 20% relative to the largely uncertain prediction. After background subtraction, the $Q^{2}$ shape of $ umub$ CCQE events is consistent with the model parameter $M_{A}$ = 1.35 GeV determined from MiniBooNE $ umu$ CCQE data, while the normalization is $sim$ 20% high compared to the same prediction.
The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab reports a total excess of $638.0 pm 132.8$ electron-like events ($4.8 sigma$) from a data sample corresponding to $18.75 times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target in neutrino mode, which is a 46% increase in the data sample with respect to previously published results, and $11.27 times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target in antineutrino mode. The additional statistics allow several studies to address questions on the source of the excess. First, we provide two-dimensional plots in visible energy and cosine of the angle of the outgoing lepton, which can provide valuable input to models for the event excess. Second, we test whether the excess may arise from photons that enter the detector from external events or photons exiting the detector from $pi^0$ decays in two model independent ways. Beam timing information shows that almost all of the excess is in time with neutrinos that interact in the detector. The radius distribution shows that the excess is distributed throughout the volume, while tighter cuts on the fiducal volume increase the significance of the excess. We conclude that models of the event excess based on entering and exiting photons are disfavored.
Our knowledge of neutrino cross sections at the GeV scale, instrumental to test CP symmetry violation in the leptonic sector, has grown substantially in the last two decades. Still, their precision and understanding are far from the standard needed in contemporary neutrino physics. Nowadays, the knowledge of the neutrino cross-section at $O(10%)$ causes the main systematic uncertainty in oscillation experiments and jeopardizes their physics reach. In this paper, we envision the opportunities for a new generation of cross section experiments to be run in parallel with DUNE and HyperKamiokande. We identify the most prominent physics goals by looking at the theory and experimental limitations of the previous generation of experiments. We highlight the priorities in the theoretical understanding of GeV cross-sections and the experimental challenges of this new generation of facilities.
In this short review, we discuss the 2020 MiniBooNE electron neutrino appearance oscillation results with special attention on background predictions relevant to the MiniBooNE oscillation results and other (anti)electron neutrino appearance search experiments.
The MiniBooNE experiment has reported a number of high statistics neutrino and anti-neutrino cross sections-among which are the charged current quasi-elastic (CCQE) and neutral current elastic (NCE) neutrino scattering on mineral oil. Recently a study of the neutrino contamination of the anti-neutrino beam has concluded and the analysis of the anti-neutrino CCQE and NCE scattering is ongoing.