Hadron Production Measurements for Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiments with NA61/SHINE

TL;DR

This paper discusses precise hadron production measurements by NA61/SHINE to improve neutrino flux predictions for long-baseline neutrino experiments like T2K and Fermilab, reducing systematic uncertainties in neutrino physics.

Contribution

It presents recent and ongoing hadron production data from NA61/SHINE that enhance the accuracy of neutrino flux models for long-baseline experiments.

Findings

Improved hadron spectra measurements for neutrino flux prediction.

Enhanced understanding of hadron-nucleus interactions relevant to neutrino experiments.

Future measurement prospects post-2020 at CERN.

Abstract

A precise prediction of the neutrino flux is a key ingredient for achieving the physics goals of long-baseline neutrino experiments. In modern accelerator-based neutrino experiments, neutrino beams are created from the decays of secondary hadrons produced in hadron-nucleus interactions. Hadron production is the leading systematic uncertainty source on the neutrino flux prediction; therefore, its precise measurement is essential. The NA61/SHINE is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron, which studies hadron production in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions for various physics goals. For neutrino physics, light hadron beams (protons, pions, and kaons) are collided with a light nuclear target (carbon, aluminum, and beryllium) and spectra of outgoing hadrons are measured. These proceedings will review the recent results and ongoing hadron production measurements with NA61/SHINE for the precise neutrino flux predictions in the T2K and Fermilab long-baseline neutrino experiments. It will also discuss the prospects for future hadron production measurements with NA61/SHINE beyond 2020, after the Long Shutdown 2 of the accelerator complex at CERN.