1305.2234 (The MINERvA collaboration et al.)

Measurement of Muon Antineutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on a
Hydrocarbon Target at E_ν ~ 3.5 GeV    [PDF]

The MINERvA collaboration, L. Fields, J. Chvojka, L. Aliaga, O. Altinok, B. Baldin, A. Baumbaugh, A. Bodek, D. Boehnlein, S. Boyd, R. Bradford, W. K. Brooks, H. Budd, A. Butkevich, D. A. Martinez Caicedo, C. M. Castromonte, M. E. Christy, H. Chung, M. Clark, H. da Motta, D. S. Damiani, I. Danko, M. Datta, M. Day, R. DeMaat, J. Devan, E. Draeger, S. A. Dytman, G. A. Díaz, B. Eberly, D. A. Edmondson, J. Felix, T. Fitzpatrick, G. A. Fiorentini, A. M. Gago, H. Gallagher, C. A. George, J. A. Gielata, C. Gingu, B. Gobbi, R. Gran, N. Grossman, J. Hanson, D. A. Harris, J. Heaton, A. Higuera, I. J. Howley, K. Hurtado, M. Jerkins, T. Kafka, J. Kaisen, M. O. Kanter, C. E. Keppel, J. Kilmer, M. Kordosky, A. H. Krajeski, S. A. Kulagin, T. Le, H. Lee, A. G. Leister, G. Locke, G. Maggi, E. Maher, S. Manly, W. A. Mann, C. M. Marshall, K. S. McFarland, C. L. McGivern, A. M. McGowan, A. Mislivec, J. G. Morfín, J. Mousseau, D. Naples, J. K. Nelson, G. Niculescu, I. Niculescu, N. Ochoa, C. D. O'Connor, J. Olsen, B. Osmanov, J. Osta, J. L. Palomino, V. Paolone, J. Park, C. E. Patrick, G. N. Perdue, C. Peña, L. Rakotondravohitra, R. D. Ransome, H. Ray, L. Ren, P. A. Rodrigues, C. Rude, K. E. Sassin, H. Schellman, D. W. Schmitz, R. M. Schneider, E. C. Schulte, C. Simon, F. D. Snider, M. C. Snyder, J. T. Sobczyk, C. J. Solano Salinas, N. Tagg, W. Tan, B. G. Tice, G. Tzanakos, J. P. Velásquez, J. Walding, T. Walton, J. Wolcott, B. A. Wolthuis, N. Woodward, G. Zavala, H. B. Zeng, D. Zhang, L. Y. Zhu, B. P. Ziemer

We have isolated muon anti-neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic interactions occurring in the segmented scintillator tracking region of the MINERvA detector running in the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. We measure the flux-averaged differential cross-section, d{\sigma}/dQ^2, and compare to several theoretical models of quasi-elastic scattering. Good agreement is obtained with a model where the nucleon axial mass, M_A, is set to 0.99 GeV/c^2 but the nucleon vector form factors are modified to account for the observed enhancement, relative to the free nucleon case, of the cross-section for the exchange of transversely polarized photons in electron-nucleus scattering. Our data at higher Q^2 favor this interpretation over an alternative in which the axial mass is increased.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2234