Measurement of muon (anti-)neutrino charged-current quasielastic-like cross section using off-axis NuMI beam at ICARUS

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of muon neutrino and antineutrino CCQE-like cross sections at ICARUS using NuMI beam data, providing insights into nuclear effects relevant for neutrino oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It presents flux-averaged differential cross sections as functions of multiple kinematic variables, comparing them with various neutrino event generator predictions.

Findings

Predictions generally agree with the measured cross sections.

Uncertainties currently limit the ability to discriminate between models.

Provides new data on CCQE-like interactions at ICARUS.

Abstract

This paper presents the first neutrino cross-section measurement from the ICARUS detector at Fermilab, using NuMI (Neutrinos at the Main Injector) beam data collected from two beam operation periods corresponding to $2.5\times10^{20}$ protons-on-target in neutrino beam mode. The signal is defined by events with no pions produced in the final state, a topology dominated by charged-current quasi-elastic-like (CCQE-like) signatures. The measurement is reported as flux-averaged differential cross sections as functions of kinematic variables that provide sensitivity to the complex nuclear effects which often dominate the systematic uncertainty budgets of neutrino oscillation measurements. Specifically, this work reports cross sections in two angular variables -- the angle of the outgoing lepton and the opening angle between the lepton and leading proton -- and two variables characterizing the kinematic imbalance between the muon and proton in the plane transverse to the incoming neutrino. These results are compared against predictions from a variety of neutrino event generators, with $p$-values calculated between the extracted cross sections and each prediction. Overall, the predictions agree with the data; however, the current budget of uncertainties does not yet provide sufficient discriminating power to favor a specific model.