Date of Award

Spring 2019

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Physics and Astronomy

First Advisor

Carl Rosenfeld

Abstract

NOνA (NuMI Off-Axis νe Appearance) experiment is a long-baseline neutrino and anti-neutrino oscillation experiment, designed to study the neutrino mass ordering and to search for the effects of the CP violating phase angle δ. Extraction of the νµ and νe oscillation parameters requires knowledge of the energy of the neutrino interacting in the detector. The reactions of neutrinos with matter produce charged and neutral particles in the detector. How well we are able to measure the energy of the incoming neutrino is directly related to the final state particles, seen in the detector. Inaccurate knowledge of neutrino-nucleon interaction obscures the energy measurement of incoming neutrino. Models that predict these interactions must be tuned to match the available cross section data. Further, most cross section measurements often include one of these models in their determination of the detector acceptance and efficiency for the specific process under consideration making the cross section measurements model dependent. We present here a model independent measurement of the cross section ratio, R_σ=σ(ν_µn→ µ^− p) / σ(ν_µ n → 2track), Using data taken from the NOνA near detector between August, 2014 and February, 2017, approximately 8800νµn → µ−p interaction and approximately 12,000 νµn → 2track events are found. We measure Rσ = 0.798 ± 0.024 (stat) ±0.009 (syst). We also measure the kinematic dependence of the cross section ratio on Tµ and cos θµ. These results may be used to compare various theoretical models for the above nuclear interactions and to improve the neutrino energy measurements in neutrino oscillation analyses.

Rights

© 2019, Barnali Chowdhury

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