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Wolcott, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Wolcott, J..

17 records
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DOE OSTI2020

Snowmass 2021 LoI: Neutrino-induced Shallow- and Deep-Inelastic Scattering

In neutrino interactions with nucleons and nuclei, Shallow Inelastic Scattering (SIS) refers to processes, dominated by non-resonant contributions, in the kinematic region where $Q^2$ is small and the invariant mass of the hadronic system, $W$, is above the pion production threshold. The extremely rich science of this complex region, poorly understood both theoretically and experimentally, encompasses the transition from interactions described in terms of hadronic degrees of freedom to interactions with quarks and gluons described by perturbative QCD. Since a large fraction of events in NOvA and DUNE, and in atmospheric neutrino measurements such as IceCube-Upgrade, KM3NeT, Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande, are from this SIS region, there is a definite need to improve our knowledge of this physics. This LoI summarizes the current understandings of the SIS physics and a series of proposals for the path to forward.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Neutron measurements from antineutrino hydrocarbon reactions

Charged-current antineutrino interactions on a hydrocarbon scintillator in the MINERvA detector are used to study activity from their final-state neutrons. To ensure that most of the neutrons are from the primary interaction, rather than hadronic reinteractions in the detector, the sample is limited to momentum transfers below 0.8 GeV / c . From 16 129 interactions, 15 246 neutral particle candidates are observed. The reference simulation predicts 64% of these candidates are due to neutrons from the antineutrino interaction directly but also overpredicts the number of candidates by 15% overall. This discrepancy is beyond the standard uncertainty estimates for models of neutrino interactions and neutron propagation in the detector. We explore these two aspects of the models using the measured distributions for energy deposition, time of flight, position, and speed. We also use multiplicity distributions to evaluate the presence of a two-nucleon knockout process. These results provide critical new information toward a complete description of the hadronic final state of neutrino interactions, which is vital to neutrino oscillation experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Reducing model bias in a deep learning classifier using domain adversarial neural networks in the MINERvA experiment

We present a simulation-based study using deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) to identify neutrino interaction vertices in the MINERvA passive targets region, and illustrate the application of domain adversarial neural networks (DANNs) in this context. DANNs are designed to be trained in one domain (simulated data) but tested in a second domain (physics data) and utilize unlabeled data from the second domain so that during training only features which are unable to discriminate between the domains are promoted. MINERvA is a neutrino-nucleus scattering experiment using the NuMI beamline at Fermilab. A-dependent cross sections are an important part of the physics program, and these measurements require vertex finding in complicated events. To illustrate the impact of the DANN we used a modified set of simulation in place of physics data during the training of the DANN and then used the label of the modified simulation during the evaluation of the DANN. In conclusion, we find that deep learning based methods offer significant advantages over our prior track-based reconstruction for the task of vertex finding, and that DANNs are able to improve the performance of deep networks by leveraging available unlabeled data and by mitigating network performance degradation rooted in biases in the physics models used for training.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Direct Measurement of Nuclear Dependence of Charged Current Quasielasticlike Neutrino Interactions Using MINERvA

Charged-current ν μ interactions on carbon, iron, and lead with a final state hadronic system of one or more protons with zero mesons are used to investigate the influence of the nuclear environment on quasielasticlike interactions. The transferred four-momentum squared to the target nucleus, Q 2 , is reconstructed based on the kinematics of the leading proton, and differential cross sections versus Q 2 and the cross-section ratios of iron, lead, and carbon to scintillator are measured for the first time in a single experiment. The measurements show a dependence on the atomic number. While the quasielasticlike scattering on carbon is compatible with predictions, the trends exhibited by scattering on iron and lead favor a prediction with intranuclear rescattering of hadrons accounted for by a conventional particle cascade treatment. Furthermore, these measurements help discriminate between different models of both initial state nucleons and final state interactions used in the neutrino oscillation experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Measurement of Neutral-Current K + Production by Neutrinos using MINERvA

Neutral-current production of K + by atmospheric neutrinos is a background in searches for the proton decay p → K + ν¯. Reactions such as νp → νK + Λ are indistinguishable from proton decays when the decay products of the Λ are below detection threshold. Events with K + are identified in MINERvA by reconstructing the timing signature of a K + decay at rest. A sample of 201 neutrino-induced neutral-current K + events is used to measure differential cross sections with respect to the K + kinetic energy, and the non-K + hadronic visible energy. An excess of events at low hadronic visible energy is observed relative to the prediction of the neut event generator. Good agreement is observed with the cross section prediction of the genie generator. In conclusion, a search for photons from π 0 decay, which would veto a neutral-current K + event in a proton decay search, is performed, and a 2σ deficit of detached photons is observed relative to the genie prediction.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Measurement of the antineutrino to neutrino charged-current interaction cross section ratio in MINERvA

Here, we present measurements of the neutrino and antineutrino total charged-current cross sections on carbon and their ratio using the MINERvA scintillator-tracker. The measurements span the energy range 2-22 GeV and were performed using forward and reversed horn focusing modes of the Fermilab low-energy NuMI beam to obtain large neutrino and antineutrino samples. The flux is obtained using a sub-sample of charged-current events at low hadronic energy transfer along with precise higher energy external neutrino cross section data overlapping with our energy range between 12-22 GeV. We also report on the antineutrino-neutrino cross section ratio, Rcc, which does not rely on external normalization information. Our ratio measurement, obtained within the same experiment using the same technique, benefits from the cancellation of common sample systematic uncertainties and reaches a precision of 5% at low energy. Our results for the antineutrino-nucleus scattering cross section and for Rcc are the most precise to date in the energy range $E_{\nu} <$ 6GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Neutrino flux predictions for the NuMI beam

Knowledge of the neutrino flux produced by the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beamline is essential to the neutrino oscillation and neutrino interaction measurements of the MINERvA, MINOS+, NOvA and MicroBooNE experiments at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. We have produced a flux prediction which uses all available and relevant hadron production data, incorporating measurements of particle production off of thin targets as well as measurements of particle yields from a spare NuMI target exposed to a 120 GeV proton beam. The result is the most precise flux prediction achieved for a neutrino beam in the one to tens of GeV energy region. Lastly, we have also compared the prediction to in situ measurements of the neutrino flux and find good agreement.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Recent Cross Section Work From NOvA

The NOvA experiment is an off-axis long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment seeking to measure $\nu_{\mu}$ disappearance and $\nu_{e}$ appearance in a $\nu_{\mu}$ beam originating at Fermilab. In addition to measuring the unoscillated neutrino spectra for the purposes of predicting the oscillated neutrino spectrum in the far detector, the 293-ton near detector also enables high-statistics investigation into neutrino scattering in numerous reaction channels. We discuss the various near detector analyses currently in progress, including inclusive measurements of both electron and muon neutrino charged-current interactions and efforts to constrain the off-axis NuMI flux using the elastic scattering of neutrinos from atomic electrons.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Cross sections for ν μ and ν ¯ μ induced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA

Separate samples of charged-current pion production events representing two semi-inclusive channels ν μ –CC(π + ) and ν¯ μ –CC(π 0 ) have been obtained using neutrino and antineutrino exposures of the MINERvA detector. Distributions in kinematic variables based upon μ±-track reconstructions are analyzed and compared for the two samples. The differential cross sections for muon production angle, muon momentum, and four-momentum transfer Q 2 are reported, and cross sections versus neutrino energy are obtained. Comparisons with predictions of current neutrino event generators are used to clarify the role of the Δ(1232) and higher-mass baryon resonances in CC pion production and to show the importance of pion final-state interactions. For the ν μ –CC(π + ) [ν¯ μ –CC(π 0 )] sample, the absolute data rate is observed to lie below (above) the predictions of some of the event generators by amounts that are typically 1-to- 2σ. Furthermore, the generators are able to reproduce the shapes of the differential cross sections for all kinematic variables of either data set.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Evidence for Neutral-Current Diffractive π 0 Production from Hydrogen in Neutrino Interactions on Hydrocarbon

Here, the MINERvA experiment observes an excess of events containing electromagnetic showers relative to the expectation from Monte Carlo simulations in neutral-current neutrino interactions with mean beam energy of 4.5 GeV on a hydrocarbon target. The excess is characterized and found to be consistent with neutral-current π 0 production with a broad energy distribution peaking at 7 GeV and a total cross section of 0.26 $\pm$ 0.02 (stat) $\pm$ 0.08 (sys) x $10^{-39} cm^{2}$. The angular distribution, electromagnetic shower energy, and spatial distribution of the energy depositions of the excess are consistent with expectations from neutrino neutral-current diffractive neutral pion production from hydrogen in the hydrocarbon target. These data comprise the first direct experimental observation and constraint for a reaction that poses an important background process in neutrino oscillation experiments searching for $\nu_{\mu}$to $\nu_e$ oscillations.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗