First Measurement of the Total Inelastic Cross-Section of Positively-Charged Kaons on Argon at Energies Between 5.0 and 7.5 GeV

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of the total inelastic cross-section of positively-charged kaons on argon at energies between 5.0 and 7.5 GeV, using data from the ProtoDUNE-SP detector at CERN.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental determination of kaon-argon inelastic cross sections in this energy range, crucial for neutrino physics and particle interaction models.

Findings

Inelastic cross section at 6 GeV/c: 380±26 mbarns

Inelastic cross section at 7 GeV/c: 379±35 mbarns

Flux-weighted average cross sections measured at both energies.

Abstract

ProtoDUNE Single-Phase (ProtoDUNE-SP) is a 770-ton liquid argon time projection chamber that operated in a hadron test beam at the CERN Neutrino Platform in 2018. We present a measurement of the total inelastic cross section of charged kaons on argon as a function of kaon energy using 6 and 7 GeV/$c$ beam momentum settings. The flux-weighted average of the extracted inelastic cross section at each beam momentum setting was measured to be 380$\pm$26 mbarns for the 6 GeV/$c$ setting and 379$\pm$35 mbarns for the 7 GeV/$c$ setting.