Simultaneous measurement of muon neutrino $\hat{I}{½}_{\hat{I}}¼$ charged-current single $\ddot{I}{€}^{+}$ production in CH, C, H${}_2$O, Fe, and Pb targets in MINERvA

Abstract

Neutrino-induced charged-current single $\ddot{I}{€}^{+}$ production in the $\hat{I}”(1232)$ resonance region is of considerable interest to accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments. In this work, high statistics differential cross sections are reported for the semi-exclusive reaction $\hat{I}{½}_{\hat{I}}¼A\to \hat{I}{¼}^{-}\ddot{I}{€}^{+}+$ nucleon(s) on scintillator, carbon, water, iron, and lead targets recorded by MINERvA using a wide-band $\hat{I}{½}_{\hat{I}}¼$ beam with $⟨E_{\hat{I}}½⟩\approx 6$~GeV. Suppression of the cross section at low $Q^2$ and enhancement of low $T_{\ddot{I}}€$ are observed in both light and heavy nuclear targets compared to phenomenological models used in current neutrino interaction generators. The cross-section ratios for iron and lead compared to CH across the kinematic variables probed are 0.8 and 0.5 respectively, a scaling which is also not predicted by current generators.

6 pages, 6 figures, 117 pages of supplementary material; updated to accepted version and added ancillary files with cross section data; updated again to add ancillary files with neutrino flux used for result