Document Type
Report
Publication Date
2018
Pages
1-39
Abstract
The extraction of neutrino mixing parameters from neutrino oscillation experiments relies on the reconstruction of the incident neutrino energy and knowledge of the neutrino-nucleus interaction cross section for various nuclei and incident neutrino energies. The energy reconstruction is done using the yield and kinematics of particles produced from neutrino interactions in nuclei. However, none of these energy reconstruction techniques have been tested experimentally using beams of known energy.
Because neutrinos and electrons are both leptons, they interact with nuclei in similar ways. We propose to measure electron scattering from a variety of targets at a range of beam energies in CLAS12 in order to test neutrino event selection and energy reconstruction techniques and to benchmark neutrino event generators. Event generators are critical inputs for analysis of neutrino oscillation and cross section experiments; providing data to test and improve these generators can significantly decrease the systematic uncertainties in neutrino experiments.
We request 25.5 days of beam time in Hall B to measure electron scattering at approximately 1.1, 2.2, 4.4, and 6.6 GeV from d, ⁴He, ¹²C, ¹⁶O, ⁴⁰Ar, and ¹²⁰Sn targets. This time includes one day of calibration time on a H target and 5 days of overhead for target and energy changes (0.5 shift for each beam energy change and one shift for each liquid target change). The energies and targets span those used in major neutrino experiments, including MicroBooNE, MINERvA, NOvA, T2K, and forthcoming ANNIE and DUNE.
This will provide enough data over a very wide range of energies and targets to help reduce one of the major uncertainties in current and especially next-generation neutrino oscillation experiments. Letters of support from the major neutrino collaborations are attached to the end of this proposal. This experiment was given C2 approval by PAC45. In this update we (a) combine this with a short range correlations proposal as a run group, (b) change the low energy (1.1 and 2.2 GeV) running to reversed-field to cover lower momentum transfer, (c) significantly decrease the beam time requested by removing the 8.8 GeV running, (d) show comparisons between CLAS6 data and GENIE, the standard neutrino monte carlo event generator, and (e) show the potential impact of this data on the neutrino energy reconstruction and therefore the neutrino oscillation parameters for the proposed DUNE experiment
Rights
© 2018 The Authors and Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
Included with the kind written permission of the author, in accordance with copyright holder policy.
Original Publication Citation
Ashkenazy, A., Cruz Torres, R., Gilad, S., Hen, O., Laskaris, G., Papadopoulou, A., Patsyuk, M., Schmidt, A., Schmookler, B., Segarra, E. P., Hauenstein, F., Hattawy, M., Hyde, C., Khachatryan, M., Kuhn, S., Weinstein, L. B., Cohen, E. O., Duer, M., Piasetzky, E.,…Li, S. (2018). Electrons for neutrinos addressing critical neutrino-nucleus issues of a run-group proposal (Report No. C12-17-006). Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
ORCID
0000-0002-1265-2212 (Hauenstein), 0000-0003-2086-2807 (Hattawy), 0000-0001-7282-8120 (Hyde), 0000-0003-2243-6836 (Kuhn)
Repository Citation
Ashkenazy, A.; Cruz Torres, R.; Gilad, S.; Hen, O.; Laskaris, G.; Papadopoulou, A.; Patsyuk, M.; Schmidt, A; Schmookler, B.; Segarra, E. P.; Hauenstein, F.; Hattawy, M.; Hyde, C.; Khachatryan, M.; Kuhn, Sebastian; Weinstein, L. B.; Cohen, E. O.; Duer, M.; Piasetzky, E.; Higinbotham, D.; Stepanyan, S.; Szumila-Vance, H.; Wood, S. A.; Marshall, Christopher; Mahn, K.; Morrison, J.; Pickering, L.; Beck, A.; Korover, I.; Mey-Tal Beck, S.; El Alaoui, A.; Hakobian, H.; Mineeva, T.; Miller, J.; Brooks, W.; Betancourt, M.; Katori, T.; Balossino, I.; Barion, L.; Ciullo, G.; Contalbrigo, M.; Lenisa, P.; Movsisyan, A.; Pappalardo, L. L.; Watts, D.; Zana, L.; Ireland, D.; Sokhan, D.; Kalantarians, N.; and Li, S., "Electrons for Neutrinos Addressing Critical Neutrino-Nucleus Issues A Run Group Proposal Resubmission to Jefferson Lab PAC 46" (2018). Physics Faculty Publications. 908.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/physics_fac_pubs/908
Comments
A proposal of the CLAS12 Collaboration.