Neutrino-induced coherent charged pion production on nuclei, $stackrel{(-)}{ u}_mu Atomu^pmpi^mp A$ 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 anti-neutrinos on carbon. We find poor agreement with the predicted kinematics in neutrino generators used by current oscillation experiments.
We report a study of muon neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic events in the segmented scintillator inner tracker of the MINERvA experiment running in the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. The events were selected by requiring a {mu}^- and low calori
metric recoil energy separated from the interaction vertex. We measure the flux-averaged differential cross-section, d{sigma}/dQ^2, and study the low energy particle content of the final state. Deviations are found between the measured d{sigma}/dQ^2 and the expectations of a model of independent nucleons in a relativistic Fermi gas. We also observe an excess of energy near the vertex consistent with multiple protons in the final state.
We have isolated muon anti-neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic interactions occurring in the segmented scintillator tracking region of the MINERvA detector running in the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. We measure the flux-averaged differential cr
oss-section, d{sigma}/dQ^2, and compare to several theoretical models of quasi-elastic scattering. Good agreement is obtained with a model where the nucleon axial mass, M_A, is set to 0.99 GeV/c^2 but the nucleon vector form factors are modified to account for the observed enhancement, relative to the free nucleon case, of the cross-section for the exchange of transversely polarized photons in electron-nucleus scattering. Our data at higher Q^2 favor this interpretation over an alternative in which the axial mass is increased.
Beams of neutrinos have been proposed as a vehicle for communications under unusual circumstances, such as direct point-to-point global communication, communication with submarines, secure communications and interstellar communication. We report on t
he performance of a low-rate communications link established using the NuMI beam line and the MINERvA detector at Fermilab. The link achieved a decoded data rate of 0.1 bits/sec with a bit error rate of 1% over a distance of 1.035 km, including 240 m of earth.
This manuscript summarizes a series of three lectures on interactions of neutrinos . The lectures begin with a pedagogical foundation and then explore topics of interest to current and future neutrino oscillation and cross-section experiments.
