Publications: Cross-Sections

Measurement of the inclusive νμ charged current cross section on iron and hydrocarbon in the T2K on-axis neutrino beam

We report a measurement of the νμ inclusive charged current cross sections on iron and hydrocarbon in the T2K on-axis neutrino beam. The measured inclusive charged current cross sections on iron and hydrocarbon averaged over the T2K on-axis flux with a mean neutrino energy of 1.51 GeV are (1.444±0.002(stat.)^+0.189_−0.157(syst.))×10⁻³⁸cm²/nucleon, and (1.379±0.009(stat.)^+0.178_−0.147(syst.))×10⁻³⁸cm²/nucleon, respectively, and their cross section ratio is 1.047±0.007(stat.)±0.035(syst.). These results agree well with the predictions of neutrino interaction model and thus demonstrate the correct treatment of the nuclear effect for iron and hydrocarbon targets in the model.

• arXiv preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.4256
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.052010
• Reference: Phys. Rev. D 90, 052010 (2014)

Measurement of the Inclusive Electron Neutrino Charged Current Cross Section on Carbon with the T2K Near Detector

The T2K off-axis near detector, ND280, is used to make the first differential cross-section measurements of electron neutrino charged current interactions at energies ∼1 GeV as a function of electron momentum, electron scattering angle and four-momentum transfer of the interaction. The total flux-averaged ν_e charged current cross-section on carbon is measured to be <σ>_ϕ = 1.11±0.09(stat) ±0.18(syst)×10^-38 cm²/nucleon.
The differential and total cross-section measurements agree with the predictions of two leading neutrino interaction generators, NEUT and GENIE. The NEUT prediction is 1.23×10^-38 cm²/nucleon and the GENIE prediction is 1.08×10^-38 cm²/nucleon. The total ν_e charged current cross-section result is also in agreement with data from the Gargamelle experiment.

Data release

• arXiv preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.7389
• Reference: Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 241803 (2014)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.241803

Measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current interaction cross section by observing nuclear deexcitation γ rays

We report the first measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic (NCQE) cross section. It is obtained by observing nuclear deexcitation γ-rays which follow neutrino-oxygen interactions at the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector. We use T2K data corresponding to 3.01 × 10²⁰ protons on target. By selecting only events during the T2K beam window and with well-reconstructed vertices in the fiducial volume, the large background rate from natural radioactivity is dramatically reduced. We observe 43 events in the 4-30 MeV reconstructed energy window, compared with an expectation of 51.0, which includes an estimated 16.2 background events. The background is primarily nonquasielastic neutral-current interactions and has only 1.2 events from natural radioactivity. The flux-averaged NCQE cross section we measure is 1.55 × 10^-38 cm² with a 68% confidence interval of (1.22, 2.20) × 10^-38 cm² at a median neutrino energy of 630 MeV, compared with the theoretical prediction of 2.01 × 10^-38 cm².

• arXiv preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.3140
• Reference: Phys. Rev. D 90, 072012 (2014)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.072012

Measurement of the Inclusive NuMu Charged Current Cross Section on Carbon in the Near Detector of the T2K Experiment

T2K has performed the first measurement of ν_μ inclusive charged current interactions on carbon at neutrino energies of ~1 GeV where the measurement is reported as a flux-averaged double differential cross section in muon momentum and angle. The flux is predicted by the beam Monte Carlo and external data, including the results from the NA61/SHINE experiment. The data used for this measurement were taken in 2010 and 2011, with a total of 10.8 × 10¹⁹ protons-on-target. The analysis is performed on 4485 inclusive charged current interaction candidates selected in the most upstream fine-grained scintillator detector of the near detector.
The flux-averaged total cross section is <σ_CC>_φ =(6.91 +/- 0.13 (stat) +/- 0.84 (syst)) ×10^-39 cm²/nucleon for a mean neutrino energy of 0.85 GeV.

Data release

• arXiv preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1302.4908
• Reference: Phys. Rev. D 87, 092003 (2013)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.092003