A High-Statistics n-Nucleus Scattering Experiment

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New Experiment in the Fermilab Neutrino Program
A High-Statistics n-Nucleus Scattering
Experiment Using an On-Axis, Fine-grained
Detector in the NuMI Beam
MINERnA (Main INjector ExpeRiment
v-A) Received Physics Approval from Fermilab
PAC in April
Jorge G. Morfín - Fermilab and Hugh Gallagher -
Tufts
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Both HEP and NP collaborators
Quantitative Study of Low-energy n-Nucleus
Interactions

• D. Drakoulakos, P. Stamoulis, G. Tzanakos, M.
  Zois
• University of Athens, Athens, Greece
• D. Casper
• University of California, Irvine, California
• E. Paschos
• University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
• D. Boehnlein, D. A. Harris, M. Kostin,
• J.G. Morfin, P. Shanahan, P. Spentzouris
• Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia,
  Illinois
• M.E. Christy, W. Hinton, C.E .Keppel
• Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia
• R. Burnstein, A. Chakravorty, O. Kamaev, N.
  Solomey
• Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago,
  Illinois

G. Blazey, M.A.C. Cummings, V. Rykalin Northern
Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois W.K.
Brooks, A. Bruell, R. Ent, D. Gaskell,, W.
Melnitchouk, S. Wood Jefferson Lab, Newport
News, Virginia S. Boyd, D. Naples, V.
Paolone University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania A. Bodek, H. Budd, J. Chvojka,
P. de Babaro, S. Manly, K. McFarland, I.C.
Park, W. Sakumoto, R. Teng University of
Rochester, Rochester, New York R. Gilman, C.
Glasshausser, X. Jiang, G. Kumbartzki, K.
McCormick, R. Ransome Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, New Jersey H. Gallagher, T. Kafka,
W.A. Mann, W. Oliver Tufts University, Medford,
Massachusetts J. Nelson William and Mary
College, Williamsburg, Virginia
Red HEP, Blue NP, Green Theorist
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Motivation Detailed Knowledge of low-energy
Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions DISMALAs we saw
MiniBooNe and K2K improving the situation at
Lower Energies

• Typical samples of NC 1-p production
• ANL
• ? p?? n ? (7 events)
• ? n?? n ?0 (7 events)
• Gargamelle
• ? p?? p ?0 (240 evts)
• ? n?? n ?0 (31 evts)
• K2K and MiniBooNe
• Starting a careful analysis of single ?0
  production.
• Strange Particle Production
• Gargamelle-PS - 15 L events.
• FNAL - 100 events
• ZGS - 7 events
• BNL - 8 events
• Larger NOMAD sample expected

CC
n n m- p
S. Zeller - NuInt04
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The MINERnA Detector
OPTIONAL
C, Fe and Pb Nuclear targets

• Active target of scintillator bars (6t total, 3 -
  5 t fiducial) - M64PMT
• Surrounded by calorimeters
• upstream calorimeters are Pb, Fe targets (1t
  each)
• magnetized side and downstream tracker/calorimeter

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Active Target Module

• Planes of strips are hexagonal
• inner detector active scintillator strip tracker
  rotated by 60º to get stereo U and V views
• Pb washers around outer 15 cm of active target
• outer detector frame, HCAL, spectrometer
• XUXV planes ? module

Inner, fully-activestrip detector
Outer Detectormagnetized sampling calorimeter
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Performance of the DetectorTracking in Active
Target

• Coordinate resolution from triangular geometry is
  excellent
• s 2-3 mm in transverse direction from light
  sharing

3.3cm
1.7cm

• technique pioneered by D0 upgrade pre-shower
  detector

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Location in NuMI Near Hall

• MINERnA preferred running is as close as possible
  to MINOS, (without Muon Ranger), using MINOS as
  high energy muon spectrometer
• If necessary, MINERnA can run stand-alone
  elsewhere in the hall with the muon ranger

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The NuMI Neutrino Beam
Main injector 120 GeV protons
1 km
110 m
Move target only
Move target and Second horn
With E-907(MIPP) at Fermilab to measure particle
spectra from the NuMI target,expect to know
neutrino flux to 3-4 .
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MINERnA will have the statistics to cover a wide
variety of important n physics topics
Assume 9x1020 POT MINOS chooses 7.0x1020 in LE n
beam, 1.2x1020 in sME and 0.8x1020 in sHE
Typical Fiducial Volume 3-5 tons CH, 0.6 ton
C, 1 ton Fe and 1 ton Pb 3 - 4.5 M events
in CH 0.5 M events in C 1 M events in Fe 1 M
events in Pb
nm Event Rates per fiducial ton Process CC
NC Quasi-elastic 103 K 42 K Resonance 196 K
70 K Transition 210 K 65 K DIS 420
K 125 K Coherent 8.4 K 4.2 K TOTAL 940 K 305 K

• Main Physics Topics with Expected Produced
  Statistics
• Quasi-elastic 300 K events off 3 tons CH
• Resonance Production 600 K total, 450 K 1p
• Coherent Pion Production 25 K CC / 12.5 K NC
• Nuclear Effects C0.6M, Fe 1M and Pb 1 M
• sT and Structure Functions 2.8 M total /1.2 M
  DIS event
• Strange and Charm Particle Production gt 60 K
  fully reconstructed events
• Generalized Parton Distributions (few K
  events?)

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A few MINERnA Physics ResultsQuasi-elastic
ScatteringMINERnA 300 K events off CH and over
100 K off of Fe and Pb

• Cross-section important for understanding
  low-energy neutrino oscillation results and
  needed for all low energy neutrino monte carlos
  used in neutrino oscillation analyses.
• Constrained kinematics help measure final state
  interactions off three different nuclear targets.

S. Zeller - NuInt04
MINERnA
Expected MiniBooNe And K2K measurements
Expected MiniBooNe and K2K measurements
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Coherent Pion Production MINERnA 25 K CC / 12.5
K NC events off C - 8.3 K CC/ 4.2 K NC off Fe and
Pb

• Characterized by a small energy transfer
• to the nucleus, forward going p. NC (p0
  production) significant background for nm --gt .ne
  oscillation search
• Data has not been precise enough to discriminate
  between several very different models.
• Expect roughly (30-40) detection efficiency with
  MINERnA.
• Can also study A-dependence with MINERnA

Rein-Seghal
Paschos- Kartavtsev
MINERnA
Expected MiniBooNe and K2K measurements
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Nuclear Effects MINERnA 2.8 M events off CH,
600 K off C and 1 M events off of Fe and Pb
Q2 distribution for SciBar detector
Problem has existed for close to three years
All known nuclear effects taken into
account Pauli suppression, Fermi Motion, Final
State Interactions They have not
included low-n shadowing that is only
allowed with axial-vector (Boris Kopeliovich at
NuInt04) Lc 2n / (mp2 Q2) RA (not mA2)
Lc 100 times shorter with mp allowing low n-low
Q2 shadowing ONLY MEASURABLE VIA NEUTRINO -
NUCLEUS INTERACTIONS! MINERnA WILL MEASURE
THIS ACROSS A WIDE n AND Q2 RANGE WITH C
Fe Pb
Larger than expected rollover at low Q2
MiniBooNE From J. Raaf (NOON04)
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Importance for Neutrino Oscillation
ExperimentsHow Nuclear Effects enter Dm2 Analyses

• Measurement of Dm2 with MINOS
• Need to understand the relationship between the
  incoming neutrino energy and the visible energy
  in the detector
• Expected from MINERnA
• Improve understanding of pion and nucleon
  absorption
• Understand intra-nuclear scattering effects
• Understand how to extrapolate these effects from
  one A to another
• Improve measurement of pion production
  cross-sections
• Understand low-n shadowing with neutrinos

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How MINERnA Would Help Off-axis Experiments
Total fractional error in the background
predictions as a function of Near Detector
off-axis Angle
Current Accuracy of Low-energy Cross-sections DQE
20 DRES 40 DDIS 20 DCOH 100
With MINERnA Measurements of s DQE 5 DRES 5,
10 (CC, NC) DDIS 5 DCOH 20
Without MINERnA measurements of s, oscillation
probability measurement could be limited by
systematics!
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Detector Cost Summary and ScheduleBeam and
Experimental Hall already Exist!

• Costs are primarily scaled from experience of
  MINERnA collaborators on CMS HCAL and MINOS
• 2.55Mequipment
• 1.41Mlabor, EDIA
• 1.54Mcontingency(39 avg.)
• Sum 5.5M
• Full project costs not updated since proposal
  (steel costs up)
• Schedule for full detector 26 - 30 months from
  start

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Summary

• MINERnA, a recently approved experiment, brings
  together the expertise of the HEP and NP
  communities to address the challenges of
  low-energy n-A physics.
• MINERnA will accumulate significantly more events
  in important exclusive channels across a wider En
  range than currently available. With excellent
  knowledge of the beam, s will be well-measured.
  
• With C, Fe and Pb targets MINERnA will enable a
  systematic study of nuclear effects in n-A
  interactions, known to be different than
  well-studied e-A channels.
• MINERnA results will dramatically improve the
  systematic errors of current and future neutrino
  oscillation experiments.
• We welcome additional collaborators!!