Constraint of the MINERvA Medium Energy Neutrino Flux using Neutrino-Electron Elastic Scattering
hep-ex
/ Authors
E. Valencia, D. Jena, Nuruzzaman, F. Akbar, L. Aliaga, D. A. Andrade, M. V. Ascencio, A. Bashyal, L. Bellantoni, A. Bercellie
and 61 more authors
A. Bodek, J. L. Bonilla, A. Bravar, H. Budd, G. Caceres, T. Cai, M. F. Carneiro, J. Chaves, D. Coplowe, H. da Motta, S. A. Dytman, G. A. Diaz, J. Felix, L. Fields, A. Filkins, R. Fine, N. Fiza, A. M. Gago, R. Galindo, H. Gallagher, A. Ghosh, T. Golan, R. Gran, D. A. Harris
/ Abstract
Elastic neutrino scattering on electrons is a precisely-known purely leptonic process that provides a standard candle for measuring neutrino flux in conventional neutrino beams. Using a total sample of 810 neutino-electron scatters after background subtraction, the measurement reduces the normalization uncertainty on the muon neutrino NuMI flux between 2 and 20 GeV from 7.5% to 3.9%. This is the most precise measurement of neutrino-electron scattering to date, will reduce uncertainties on MINERvA's absolute cross section measurements, and demonstrates a technique that can be used in future neutrino beams such as LBNF.