Constraining the NuMI neutrino flux using inverse muon decay reactions in MINERvA

TL;DR

This paper uses inverse muon decay reactions in MINERvA to precisely measure and constrain the high-energy neutrino flux in the NuMI beam, improving flux predictions for neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a method to constrain the high-energy neutrino flux using inverse muon decay reactions with minimal theoretical uncertainty.

Findings

Successfully isolated hundreds of inverse muon decay events

Constrained the high-energy neutrino flux in NuMI beam

Improved flux prediction accuracy for neutrino experiments

Abstract

Inverse muon decay, $\nu_\mu e^-\to\mu^-\nu_e$, is a reaction whose cross-section can be predicted with very small uncertainties. It has a neutrino energy threshold of $\approx 11$ GeV and can be used to constrain the high-energy part of the flux in the NuMI neutrino beam. This reaction is the dominant source of events which only contain high-energy muons nearly parallel to the direction of the neutrino beam. We have isolated a sample of hundreds of such events in neutrino and anti-neutrino enhanced beams, and have constrained the predicted high-energy flux.