Measurement of the production cross-section of positive pions in the collision of 8.9 GeV/c protons on beryllium

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of positive pion production cross-sections from 8.9 GeV/c proton-beryllium collisions, crucial for neutrino flux predictions in Fermilab experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed double-differential cross-section data for positive pions at this energy and target, improving neutrino flux modeling accuracy.

Findings

Measured cross-sections in specified kinematic range

Data reduces uncertainties in neutrino flux predictions

Provides a large dataset with 96,000 reconstructed tracks

Abstract

The double-differential production cross-section of positive pions, $d^2\sigma^{\pi^{+}}/dpd\Omega$, measured in the HARP experiment is presented. The incident particles are 8.9 GeV/c protons directed onto a beryllium target with a nominal thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. The measured cross-section has a direct impact on the prediction of neutrino fluxes for the MiniBooNE and SciBooNE experiments at Fermilab. After cuts, 13 million protons on target produced about 96,000 reconstructed secondary tracks which were used in this analysis. Cross-section results are presented in the kinematic range 0.75 GeV/c < $p_{\pi}$ < 6.5 GeV/c and 30 mrad < $\theta_{\pi}$ < 210 mrad in the laboratory frame.