# Presentation: 520252

## The MINERA Experiment

- Ronald Ransome

- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

- Piscataway, NJ

- For the MINERA Collaboration

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## MINERA

- Main INjector ExpeRiment 

- MINERis a compact, fully active neutrino detector designed to study neutrino-nucleus interactions with unprecedented detail.

- *Minerva, pictured above, was the Roman goddess of wisdom and technical skill.

- The detector will be placed in the NuMI beam line, in front (upstream) of the MINOS near detector.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## The MINERA Collaboration

- D. Drakoulakos, P. Stamoulis, G. Tzanakos, M. Zois*University of Athens, Greece*
- D. Casper#, J. Dunmore, C. Regis, B. Ziemer*University of California, Irvine*
- E. Paschos*University of Dortmund*
- D. Boehnlein, D. A. Harris#, N. Grossman, M. Kostin, J.G. Morfin*, A. Pla-Dalmau,                 P. Rubinov, P. Shanahan, P. Spentzouris*Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory*
- M.E. Christy, W. Hinton, C.E. Keppel*Hampton University*
- R. Burnstein, O. Kamaev, N. Solomey*Illinois Institute of Technology*
- S. Kulagin*Institute for Nuclear Research, Russia*
- I. Niculescu. G. Niculescu*James Madison University*
- G. Blazey, M.A.C. Cummings, V. Rykalin*Northern Illinois University*

- W.K. Brooks, A. Bruell, R. Ent, D. Gaskell, W. Melnitchouk, S. Wood*Jefferson Lab*
- S. Boyd, D. Naples, V. Paolone*University of Pittsburgh*
- A. Bodek, R. Bradford, H. Budd, J. Chvojka, P. de Barbaro, S. Manly, K. McFarland*, J. Park, W. Sakumoto, J. Steinman*University of Rochester*
- R. Gilman, C. Glasshausser, X. Jiang,G. Kumbartzki, R. Ransome#, E. Schulte*Rutgers University*
- A. Chakravorty*Saint Xavier University*
- D. Cherdack, H. Gallagher, T. Kafka, W.A. Mann, W. Oliver*Tufts University*
- J.K. Nelson#, F.X. Yumiceva*The College of William and Mary*

- * Co-Spokespersons# Members of the MINERvA Executive Committee

- Collaboration of Particle, Nuclear, and Theoretical physicists

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Objectives of MINERAPhysics Goals

- Axial form factor of the nucleon
- Yet to be accurately measured over a wide Q2 range.
- Resonance production in both NC and CC neutrino interactions
- No statistically significant measurements with 1-5 GeV neutrinos.
- Study of “duality” with neutrinos.
- Coherent pion production
- No statistically significant measurements of  or A-dependence.
- Nuclear effects
- Expect some significant differences for -A vs e/-A nuclear effects.
- Strange Particle Production
- Important backgrounds for proton decay.
- Parton distribution functions
- Measurement of high-x behavior of quarks.
- Generalized parton distributions

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Objectives of MINERAHelping oscillation experiments

- Better understanding of relationship between observed energy and incident neutrino energy - MINOS
- Improved measurement of exclusive cross sections.
- Measurement of -initiated nuclear effects.
- Much improved measurements of -nucleus exclusive cross sections –NOA and T2K
- Nuclear (A) dependence.
- Individual final states cross sections, esp. 0production.
- Intra-nuclear charge exchange.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## How to achieve these objectives?

- We need lots of neutrinos.
- We need a detector with good tracking resolution, momentum resolution, low momentum threshold, and particle ID.
- Identify exclusive final states.
- Need a variety of targets to study nuclear dependence.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Lots of Neutrinos-NuMI Beam Line

- MINOS

- MINERA

- (see N. Saoulidou - MINOS talk).

- 20 GeV

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## The MINERA Detector

- Active segmented scint. detector 5.87 tons.
- ~1 ton each of  nuclear target planes (C, Fe, Pb) upstream.

- MINOS used for higher energy forward muon detection.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Active Detector Elements

- Basic element: 1.7x3.3cm triangular strips.1.2mm WLS fiber readout in center hole

- MINERA optical system

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Front View of Detector

- Inner Detector – X, U, V planes for stereo view

- Lead Sheets for EM calorimetry

- Toroidal magnetic field

- Layers of iron/scintillator for hadron calorimetry

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Neutrino-Nucleon Cross section

- NuMI flux range

- 1-20 GeV

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Event Rates 16 Million total CC events in a 4 - year run

- Assume 16**.0x**1020** in LE********ME, and HE configurations in 4 years**

**Fiducial Volume = 3 tons CH, ≈  0.6 t C, ≈ 1 t Fe  and ≈ 1 t Pb**
**Expected CC event samples:**
**8.6 M ******** events in CH**
**1.4 M ******** events in C**
**2.9 M ******** events in Fe**
** ****2.9 M ********events in Pb**

**Main CC Physics Topics with Expected Produced ******** ****Statistics in 3 tons of CH**
**Quasi-elastic**** ****	****	****	****	****0.8 M events **
**Resonance Production**** ****	****	****	****1.6 M total**
**Transition: Resonance to DIS****	****	****2 M events**
**DIS and Structure Functions**** ****	****	****4.1 M DIS events**
**Coherent Pion Production****	********85 K CC / 37 K NC**
**Strange and Charm Particle Production**** ****	****> 230 K fully**** ****reconstructed events**
**Generalized Parton Distributions**** ****	****	****order 10 K events****	**
**Nuclear Effects**** ****	****	****	****C:1.4 M, Fe: 2.9 M and Pb: 2.9 M**

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Form factor Measurements 

- MINERA Measurement of Axial FF

- Vector form factors measured with electrons.
-  GE/GM ratio varies with Q2 - a surprise from JLab
-  Axial form factor poorly known.
-  Medium effects for FA measurement unknown - MINERA will use C, Fe, and Pb targets to check this.

**Expected MiniBooNe **
**and K2K measurements**

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Resonance Production and Duality

- Neutrino induced resonance production cross sections essentially unknown.

- Electron scattering has shown relation between structure functions measured in resonance region and DIS.

- Duality not well understood – could open opportunity to better high-x measurements.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Coherent Pion Production

- Provides a test of the understanding of the weak interaction (the cross section can be calculated in various models), and neutral pion production is a significant background for neutrino oscillations.

- The  shower can be easily confused with an electron shower.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Example of MINERA’s Analysis Potential Coherent Pion Production

- MINERA
- 4-year run

**Expected MiniBooNe **
**and K2K measurements**

- Rein-Seghal model

- Paschos- Kartavtsev model

**MINER********A’s nuclear targets allow**
**the first measurement of the**
**A-dependence of ********coh**
**across a wide A range.**

- A-range of
- current measurements

- A

- Data points: MINERA

- Example of MINERA’s Analysis Potential **Coherent Pion Production**

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Nuclear Effects

- Most measurements of neutrino interactions have been on heavy nuclei.  The statistics have generally been so poor that any changes to measured quantities due to nuclear effects could be safely neglected.   No longer!

- For example, oscillation of the W/Z into mesons can cause interactions with the nuclear medium that differ with A.  This can cause shadowing effects which are substantial and different than what has been measured for e/-A scattering.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Nuclear EffectsPredicted difference -A vs e/-A 

- MINERA should be able to determine this ratio to a few % for > 6 GeV.

- Larger than expected rollover at low Q2

- Q2 distribution for SciBar detector

***MiniBooNE***
*From J. Raaf*
*(NOON04)*

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Helping MINOS and NOA/T2K

**Measurement of ********m****2  ****with MINOS**
- Need to understand the relationship between the incoming neutrino energy and the visible energy in the detector.

- Current Accuracy of Low-energy Cross-sections.

**Measurement of ****sin****2 ************ ****with NO********A**
- Need absolute cross sections of background reactions.
- Note: Calculations are for “old” NOA detector design. New detector design yields reduced systematic errors.

- With MINERA measurements of cross sections.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Current Status of MINERA

- Received Stage I approval in April 2004.
- Successful summer 2004 R&D program concentrating on front-end electronics and scintillator extrusions.
- Detailed costing and schedule module exists.
- Underwent first FNAL Director’s (Temple) Review in January 2005.
- MINERA is a project in PPD with project directorate approved by Fermilab and project management plan currently under discussion.
- Developing prototypes of many components.
- Working with Fermilab to understand funding profiles and how to get MINERA in the lab budget.
- Current scheduling model indicates construction starting in Oct. 2006 and installation-finishing/commissioning-starting in early Fall 2008.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13

## Conclusions

- Neutrinos provide a unique probe of nucleon structure.
- New beams have sufficient intensity to do experiments with good statistics with low mass detector (10-100 times better than previous experiments).
- MINERA will provide greatly improved statistics for fundamental measurements and provide significant input for oscillation experiments.
- Opportunity for unique and critical FNAL role in world neutrino efforts with a modest-scale project.

- Rutgers Seminar Oct. 13