Measurement of single $π^0$ production by coherent neutral-current $ν$ Fe interactions in the MINOS Near Detector
Creators: name: Adamson, P.
name: Anghel, I.
name: Aurisano, A.
name: Barr, G.
name: Bishai, M.
name: Blake, A.
name: Bock, G. J.
name: Bogert, D.
name: Cao, S. V.
name: Carroll, T. J.
name: Castromonte, C. M.
name: Chen, R.
name: Cherdack, D.
name: Childress, S.
name: Coelho, J. A. B.
name: Corwin, L.
name: Cronin-Hennessy, D.
name: de Jong, J. K.
name: De Rijck, S.
name: Devan, A. V.
name: Devenish, N. E.
name: Diwan, M. V.
name: Escobar, C. O.
name: Evans, J. J.
name: Falk, E.
name: Feldman, G. J.
name: Flanagan, W.
name: Frohne, M. V.
name: Gabrielyan, M.
name: Gallagher, H. R.
name: Germani, S.
name: Gomes, R. A.
name: Goodman, M. C.
name: Gouffon, P.
name: Graf, N.
name: Gran, R.
name: Grzelak, K.
name: Habig, A.
name: Hahn, S. R.
name: Hartnell, J.
name: Hatcher, R.
name: Holin, A.
name: Huang, J.
name: Hylen, J.
name: Irwin, G. M.
name: Isvan, Z.
name: James, C.
name: Jensen, D.
name: Kafka, T.
name: Kasahara, S. M. S.
name: Koizumi, G.
name: Kordosky, M.
name: Kreymer, A.
name: Lang, K.
name: Ling, J.
name: Litchfield, P. J.
name: Lucas, P.
name: Mann, W. A.
name: Marshak, M. L.
name: Mayer, N.
name: McGivern, C.
name: Medeiros, M. M.
name: Mehdiyev, R.
name: Meier, J. R.
name: Messier, M. D.
name: Miller, W. H.
name: Mishra, S. R.
name: Sher, S. Moed
name: Moore, C. D.
name: Mualem, L.
name: Musser, J.
name: Naples, D.
name: Nelson, J. K.
name: Newman, H. B.
name: Nichol, R. J.
name: Nowak, J. A.
name: O'Connor, J.
name: Oliver, W. P.
name: Orchanian, M.
name: Pahlka, R. B.
name: Paley, J.
name: Patterson, R. B.
name: Pawloski, G.
name: Perch, A.
name: Pfutzner, M. M.
name: Phan, D. D.
name: Phan-Budd, S.
name: Plunkett, R. K.
name: Poonthottathil, N.
name: Qiu, X.
name: Radovic, A.
name: Rebel, B.
name: Rosenfeld, C.
name: Rubin, H. A.
name: Sail, P.
name: Sanchez, M. C.
name: Schneps, J.
name: Schreckenberger, A.
name: Schreiner, P.
name: Sharma, R.
name: Sousa, A.
name: Tagg, N.
name: Talaga, R. L.
name: Thomas, J.
name: Thomson, M. A.
name: Tian, X.
name: Timmons, A.
name: Todd, J.
name: Tognini, S. C.
name: Toner, R.
name: Torretta, D.
name: Tzanakos, G.
name: Urheim, J.
name: Vahle, P.
name: Viren, B.
name: Weber, A.
name: Webb, R. C.
name: White, C.
name: Whitehead, L.
name: Whitehead, L. H.
name: Wojcicki, S. G.
name: Zwaska, R.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Forward single $π^0$ production by coherent neutral-current interactions, $ν\mathcal{A} \to ν\mathcal{A} π^0$, is investigated using a 2.8$\times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target exposure of the MINOS Near Detector. For single-shower topologies, the event distribution in production angle exhibits a clear excess above the estimated background at very forward angles for visible energy in the range~1-8 GeV. Cross sections are obtained for the detector medium comprised of 80% iron and 20% carbon nuclei with $\langle \mathcal{A} \rangle = 48$, the highest-$\langle \mathcal{A} \rangle$ target used to date in the study of this coherent reaction. The total cross section for coherent neutral-current single-$π^0$ production initiated by the $ν_μ$ flux of the NuMI low-energy beam with mean (mode) $E_ν$ of 4.9 GeV (3.0 GeV), is $77.6\pm5.0\,(\text{stat}) ^{+15.0}_{-16.8}\,(\text{syst})\times10^{-40}\,\text{cm}^2~\text{per nucleus}$. The results are in good agreement with predictions of the Berger-Sehgal model.
description: 19 pages, 14 figures Supplementary Materials, MINOS Collaboration