Preliminary results of charged pions cross-section in proton carbon interaction at 30 GeV measured with the NA61/SHINE detector

TL;DR

This paper presents preliminary measurements of charged pion production cross sections in proton-carbon interactions at 30 GeV, aiming to improve neutrino beam modeling for experiments like T2K.

Contribution

It provides the first preliminary spectra of charged pion cross sections at 30 GeV using the NA61/SHINE detector, enhancing hadro-production data for neutrino physics.

Findings

Preliminary $^{+}$ and $^{-}$ cross section spectra obtained

Results from three analysis methods discussed

Data aims to reduce systematic errors in neutrino flux predictions

Abstract

As the intensity of neutrino beams produced at accelerators increases, important systematic errors due to poor knowledge of production cross sections for pions and kaons arise. Among other goals, the NA61/SHINE (SHINE=SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) detector at CERN SPS aims at precision hadro-production measurements to characterise the neutrino beam of the T2K experiment at J-PARC. These measurements are performed using a 30GeV proton beam produced at the SPS with a thin carbon target and a full T2K replica target. Preliminary spectra of $\pi^{+}$ and $\pi^{-}$ inclusive cross section were obtained from pilot data collected in 2007 with a 2 cm thick target. After a description of the SHINE detector and its particle identification capabilities, results from three different analysis are discussed.