Measurement of the production cross section of 31 GeV/$c$ protons on carbon via beam attenuation in a 90-cm-long target

Abstract

The production cross section of 30.92 GeV/$c$ protons on carbon is measured by the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS by means of beam attenuation in a copy (replica) of the 90-cm-long target of the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment. The employed method for direct production cross-section estimation minimizes model corrections for elastic and quasi-elastic interactions. The obtained production cross section is ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{prod}}=227.6\pm 0.8(\mathrm{stat}){}_{-3.2}^{+1.9}(\mathrm{sys})-0.8(\mathrm{mod})$ mb. It is in agreement with previous NA61/SHINE results obtained with a thin carbon target, while providing improved precision with a total fractional uncertainty of less than 2$\%$. This direct measurement is performed to reduce the uncertainty on the T2K neutrino flux prediction associated with the re-weighting of the interaction rate of neutrino-yielding hadrons.

arXiv comment20 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (12)

• The T2K Experiment
• NA61/SHINE facility at the CERN SPS: beams and detector system
• The T2K Neutrino Flux Prediction
• Design, Calibration, and Performance of the MINERvA Detector
• Measurements of Cross Sections and Charged Pion Spectra in Proton-Carbon Interactions at 31 GeV/c
• Measurement of Production Properties of Positively Charged Kaons in Proton-Carbon Interactions at 31 GeV/c
• Measurements of ${\pi }^{\pm }$, $K^{\pm }$, $K_S^0$, $\Lambda$ and proton production in proton-carbon interactions at 31 GeV/$c$ with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS
• Measurements of ${\pi }^{\pm }$, $K^{\pm }$ and proton yields from the surface of the T2K replica target for incoming 31 GeV/c protons with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS
• Pion emission from the T2K replica target: method, results and application
• Measurements of ${\pi }^{\pm }$ differential yields from the surface of the T2K replica target for incoming 31 GeV/c protons with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS
• Measurements of Production Properties of K0S mesons and Lambda hyperons in Proton-Carbon Interactions at 31 GeV/c
• Measurements of production and inelastic cross sections for $\mbox{p}+\mbox{C}$, $\mbox{p}+\mbox{Be}$, and $\mbox{p}+\mbox{Al}$ at 60 GeV/$c$ and $\mbox{p}+\mbox{C}$ and $\mbox{p}+\mbox{Be}$ at 120 GeV/$c$

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Measurements of hadron production in 90 GeV/c proton-carbon interactions