Measurement of neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Name
PhysRevD.99.112007.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.1 MB
Format
Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
SNO Collaboration
Formaggio, Joseph A
Miller, M. L.
Monreal, Benjamin
Monroe, Jocelyn
Solomon-Oblath, Noah
Ott, Richard A.
Sonley, Thomas John
Date Issued
2019
Journal
Physical Review D
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Neutron production in GeV-scale neutrino interactions is a poorly studied
process. We have measured the neutron multiplicities in atmospheric neutrino
interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment and compared them
to the prediction of a Monte Carlo simulation using GENIE and a minimally
modified version of GEANT4. We analyzed 837 days of exposure corresponding to
Phase I, using pure heavy water, and Phase II, using a mixture of Cl in heavy
water. Neutrons produced in atmospheric neutrino interactions were identified
with an efficiency of $15.3\%$ and $44.3\%$, for Phase I and II respectively.
The neutron production is measured as a function of the visible energy of the
neutrino interaction and, for charged current quasi-elastic interaction
candidates, also as a function of the neutrino energy. This study is also
performed classifying the complete sample into two pairs of event categories:
charged current quasi-elastic and non charged current quasi-elastic, and
$\nu_{\mu}$ and $\nu_e$. Results show good overall agreement between data and
Monte Carlo for both phases, with some small tension with a statistical
significance below $2\sigma$ for some intermediate energies.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.99.112007
