Exploring Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions in the GeV Regime using MINERvA

TL;DR

This paper reviews MINERvA's decade-long measurements of neutrino-nucleus interactions in the GeV energy range, highlighting their importance for advancing neutrino physics and oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of MINERvA's experimental results and their impact on understanding neutrino interactions with nuclear targets.

Findings

Detailed neutrino interaction data in the 1-6 GeV range

Enhanced understanding of nuclear effects in neutrino scattering

Critical input for neutrino oscillation analyses

Abstract

With the advance of particle accelerator and detector technologies, the neutrino physics landscape is rapidly expanding. As neutrino oscillation experiments enter the intensity and precision frontiers, neutrino-nucleus interaction measurements are providing crucial input. MINERvA is an experiment at Fermilab dedicated to the study of neutrino-nucleus interactions in the regime of incident neutrino energies from one to few GeV. The experiment recorded neutrino and antineutrino scattering data with the NuMI beamline from 2009 to 2019 using the Low-Energy and Medium-Energy beams that peak at 3 GeV and 6 GeV, respectively. This article reviews the broad spectrum of interesting nuclear and particle physics that MINERvA investigations have illuminated. The newfound, detailed knowledge of neutrino interactions with nuclear targets thereby obtained is proving essential to continued progress in the neutrino physics sector.