Neutrino and Antineutrino Inclusive Charged-current Cross Section Measurements with the MINOS Near Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of neutrino and antineutrino charged-current cross sections on iron across a broad energy range, improving understanding of neutrino interactions and their energy dependence.

Contribution

The study provides high-precision measurements of neutrino and antineutrino-iron cross sections and their ratio over a wide energy range, filling gaps in low-energy data.

Findings

Cross sections measured with 2-8% precision

Cross section ratio measured with 2-8% precision

Data covers 3-50 GeV energy range

Abstract

The energy dependence of the neutrino-iron and antineutrino-iron inclusive charged-current cross sections and their ratio have been measured using a high-statistics sample with the MINOS Near Detector exposed to the NuMI beam from the Main Injector at Fermilab. Neutrino and antineutrino fluxes were determined using a low hadronic energy subsample of charged-current events. We report measurements of neutrino-Fe (antineutrinoFe) cross section in the energy range 3-50 GeV (5-50 GeV) with precision of 2-8% (3-9%) and their ratio which is measured with precision 2-8%. The data set spans the region from low energy, where accurate measurements are sparse, up to the high-energy scaling region where the cross section is well understood.