Precise Measurement of Neutrino and Anti-neutrino Differential Cross Sections
M. Tzanov, D. Naples, S. Boyd, J. McDonald, V. Radescu, T. Adams, A. Alton, S. Avvakumov, L. deBarbaro, P. deBarbaro, R. H. Bernstein, A. Bodek, T. Bolton, J. Brau, D. Buchholz, H. Budd, L. Bugel, J. Conrad, R. B. Drucker, B. T. Fleming, R. Frey, J. A. Formaggio, J. Goldman, M. Goncharov, D. A. Harris, R. A. Johnson, J. H. Kim, S. Koutsoliotas, M. J. Lamm, W. Marsh, D. Mason, K. S. McFarland, C. McNulty, P. Nienaber, A. Romosan, W. K. Sakumoto, H. Schellman, M. H. Shaevitz, P. Spentzouris, E. G. Stern, N. Suwonjandee, N. Tobien, M. Vakili, A. Vaitaitis, U. K. Yang, J. Yu, G. P. Zeller, E. D. Zimmerman
TL;DR
NuTeV addresses precise measurement of neutrino and anti-neutrino differential cross sections on iron, enabling a largely model-independent extraction of structure functions $F_2(x,Q^2)$ and $xF_3(x,Q^2)$ from the $y$-dependence of the cross sections. The analysis harnesses a sign-selected beam for clean $\nu_\mu$ and $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ samples and a calibration beam to map detector response, delivering unprecedented control of hadron and muon energy scales. The resulting high-statistics cross sections and extracted structure functions extend coverage in $x$ and $Q^2$ with substantially reduced systematic uncertainties. This work enhances PDF determinations and tests perturbative QCD in neutrino-nuclear scattering, with broad implications for neutrino oscillation experiments and nuclear targets.
Abstract
The NuTeV experiment at Fermilab has obtained a unique high statistics sample of neutrino and anti-neutrino interactions using its high-energy sign-selected beam. We present a measurement of the differential cross section for charged-current neutrino and anti-neutrino scattering from iron. Structure functions, F_2(x,Q^2) and xF_3(x,Q^2), are determined by fitting the inelasticity, y, dependence of the cross sections. This measurement has significantly improved systematic precision as a consequence of more precise understanding of hadron and muon energy scales.