NA61-SHINE: Hadron Production Measurements for Cosmic Ray and Neutrino Experiments

TL;DR

NA61-SHINE provides high-precision hadron production measurements crucial for improving neutrino flux predictions in long baseline experiments and air shower simulations in cosmic ray research.

Contribution

The paper reports the first precise measurements of pion and kaon production cross-sections using the NA61-SHINE experiment, enhancing models for neutrino and cosmic ray experiments.

Findings

Preliminary spectra for positive and negative pions obtained.

Data supports improved neutrino flux predictions for T2K.

Results contribute to better air shower modeling in cosmic ray experiments.

Abstract

As neutrino long baseline experiments enter a new domain of precision, important systematic errors due to poor knowledge of production cross-sections for pions and kaons require more dedicated measurements for precise neutrino flux predictions. The cosmic ray experiments require dedicated hadron production measurements to tune simulation models used to describe air shower profiles. Among other goals, the NA61-SHINE (SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) experiment at the CERN SPS aims at precision measurements (5% and below) for both neutrino and cosmic ray experiments: those will improve the prediction of the neutrino flux for the T2K experiment at J-PARC and the prediction of muon production in the propagation of air showers for the Auger and KASCADE experiments. Motivations for new hadron production measurements are briefly discussed. NA61-SHINE took data during a pilot run in 2007 and in 2009 with different Carbon targets. The NA61-SHINE setup and preliminary spectra for positive and negative pions obtained with the 2007 thin (4% interaction length) Carbon target data are presented. The use of the NA61 data for the T2K neutrino flux predictions is finally discussed in further details.