Single neutral pion production by charged-current $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ interactions on hydrocarbon at $\langle E_\nu \rangle = $3.6 GeV
/ Authors
T. Le, J. Palomino, L. Aliaga, O. Altinok, A. Bercellie, A. Bodek, A. Bravar, W. Brooks, A. Butkevich, D. A. Caicedo
and 56 more authors
M. Carneiro, M. Christy, J. Chvojka, H. Motta, J. Devan, S. Dytman, G. D'iaz, B. Eberly, J. Félix, L. Fields, R. Fine, A. Gago, H. Gallagher, R. Gran, D. Harris, A. Higuera, K. Hurtado, M. Kordosky, E. Maher, S. Manly, W. Mann, C. Marshall, K. McFarland, C. Mcgivern, A. McGowan, J. Miller, J. Morf'in, J. Mousseau, J. Nelson, A. Norrick, J. Osta, V. Paolone, J. Park, C. Patrick, G. Perdue, L. Rakotondravohitra, M. A. Ramírez, R. Ransome, H. Ray, L. Ren, P. Rodrigues, D. Ruterbories, H. Schellman, D. Schmitz, J. Sobczyk, C. J. S. Salinas, N. Tagg, B. Tice, E. Valencia, T. Walton, J. Wolcott, H. Yepes-Ramirez, G. Zavala, D. Zhang, B.P.Ziemer, F. C. Collaboration
/ Abstract
Single neutral pion production via muon antineutrino charged-current interactions in plastic scintillator (CH) is studied using the \minerva detector exposed to the NuMI low-energy, wideband antineutrino beam at Fermilab. Measurement of this process constrains models of neutral pion production in nuclei, which is important because the neutral-current analog is a background for $\bar{\nu}_e$ appearance oscillation experiments. The differential cross sections for $\pi^0$ momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed $\pi^0$ and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the $\pi^0$ kinematics for this process.
Journal: Physics Letters B