FNAL User’s Meeting June 20051

The MINERA Experiment

Ronald Ransome

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Piscataway, NJ

For the MINERA Collaboration

FNAL User’s Meeting June 20052

MINERA

Main INjector ExpeRiment

MINERis a compact, fully active neutrino detector designed to study neutrino-nucleus interactions with unprecedented detail.

*Minerva, pictured above, was the Roman goddess of wisdom and technical skill.

The detector will be placed in the NuMI beam line, in front (upstream) of the MINOS near detector.

FNAL User’s Meeting June 20053

The MINERA Collaboration

D. Drakoulakos, P. Stamoulis, G. Tzanakos, M. ZoisUniversity of Athens, Greece

D. Casper#, J. Dunmore, C. Regis, B. ZiemerUniversity of California, Irvine

E. PaschosUniversity of Dortmund

D. Boehnlein, D. A. Harris#, N. Grossman, M. Kostin, J.G. Morfin*, A. Pla-Dalmau, P. Rubinov, P. Shanahan, P. SpentzourisFermi National Accelerator Laboratory

M.E. Christy, W. Hinton, C.E. KeppelHampton University

R. Burnstein, O. Kamaev, N. SolomeyIllinois Institute of Technology

S. KulaginInstitute for Nuclear Research, Russia

I. Niculescu. G. NiculescuJames Madison University

G. Blazey, M.A.C. Cummings, V. RykalinNorthern Illinois University

W.K. Brooks, A. Bruell, R. Ent, D. Gaskell, W. Melnitchouk, S. WoodJefferson Lab

S. Boyd, D. Naples, V. PaoloneUniversity of Pittsburgh

A. Bodek, R. Bradford, H. Budd, J. Chvojka, P. de Barbaro, S. Manly, K. McFarland*, J. Park, W. Sakumoto, J. SteinmanUniversity of Rochester

R. Gilman, C. Glasshausser, X. Jiang,G. Kumbartzki, R. Ransome#, E. SchulteRutgers University

A. ChakravortySaint Xavier University

D. Cherdack, H. Gallagher, T. Kafka, W.A. Mann, W. OliverTufts University

J.K. Nelson#, F.X. YumicevaThe College of William and Mary

* Co-Spokespersons# Members of the MINERvA Executive Committee

Collaboration of Particle, Nuclear, and Theoretical physicists

FNAL User’s Meeting June 20054

Objectives of MINERAPhysics Goals

Axial form factor of the nucleon Yet to be accurately measured over a wide Q2 range.

Resonance production in both NC and CC neutrino interactions No statistically significant measurements with 1-5 GeV neutrinos. Study of “duality” with neutrinos.

Coherent pion production No statistically significant measurements of or A-dependence.

Nuclear effects Expect some significant differences for -A vs e/-A nuclear effects.

Strange Particle Production Important backgrounds for proton decay.

Parton distribution functions Measurement of high-x behavior of quarks.

Generalized parton distributions

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Objectives of MINERAHelping oscillation experiments

Better understanding of relationship between observed energy and incident neutrino energy - MINOS Improved measurement of exclusive cross sections. Measurement of -initiated nuclear effects.

Much improved measurements of -nucleus exclusive cross sections –NOA and T2K Nuclear (A) dependence. Individual final states cross sections, esp. 0production. Intra-nuclear charge exchange.

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How to achieve these objectives?

We need lots of neutrinos.

We need a detector with good tracking resolution, momentum resolution, low momentum threshold, and particle ID. Identify exclusive final states.

Need a variety of targets to study nuclear dependence.

FNAL User’s Meeting June 20057

Lots of Neutrinos-NuMI Beam Line

MINOS

MINERA

(see N. Saoulidou - MINOS talk).

20 GeV

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The MINERA Detector

Coil

Active segmented scint. detector 5.87 tons.

~1 ton each of nuclear target planes (C, Fe, Pb) upstream.

MINOS used for higher energy forward muon detection.

FNAL User’s Meeting June 20059

Active Detector Elements

Basic element: 1.7x3.3cm triangular Basic element: 1.7x3.3cm triangular strips.strips.

1.2mm WLS fiber readout in center hole1.2mm WLS fiber readout in center holeAssembleAssemble

into planesinto planes

MINERA optical system

DDK Connectors

Scintillator and embedded WLS

Clear fiber

CookieM-64 PMT

PMT Box

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Front View of Detector

Inner Detector – X, U, V planes for stereo view

Lead Sheets for EM calorimetry

Toroidal magnetic field

Layers of iron/scintillator for hadron calorimetry

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Neutrino-Nucleon Cross section

NuMI flux range1-20 GeV

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Event Rates 16 Million total CC events in a 4 - year run

Assume 16.0x1020 in LEME, and HE configurations in 4 years

Fiducial Volume = 3 tons CH, ≈ 0.6 t C, ≈ 1 t Fe and ≈ 1 t PbExpected CC event samples:

8.6 M events in CH1.4 M events in C2.9 M events in Fe

2.9 M events in Pb

Main CC Physics Topics with Expected Produced Statistics in 3 tons of CH

Quasi-elastic 0.8 M events Resonance Production 1.6 M total Transition: Resonance to DIS 2 M events DIS and Structure Functions 4.1 M DIS events Coherent Pion Production 85 K CC / 37 K NC Strange and Charm Particle Production > 230 K fully reconstructed events Generalized Parton Distributions order 10 K events Nuclear Effects C:1.4 M, Fe: 2.9 M and Pb: 2.9 M

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Form factor Measurements

MINERA Measurement of Axial FF•Vector form factors

measured with electrons.

GE/GM ratio varies with Q2 -

a surprise from JLab• Axial form factor poorly

known.

• Medium effects for FA

measurement unknown -

MINERA will use C, Fe,

and Pb targets to check this.Expected MiniBooNe

and K2K measurements

FNAL User’s Meeting June 200514

Resonance Production and Duality

Neutrino induced resonance production cross sections essentially unknown.

Electron scattering has shown relation between structure functions measured in resonance region and DIS.

Duality not well understood – could open opportunity to better high-x measurements.

FNAL User’s Meeting June 200515

Coherent Pion Production

Provides a test of the understanding of the weak interaction (the cross section can be calculated in various models), and neutral pion production is a significant background for neutrino oscillations.

pene−→→

The shower and can be easily confused with an electron shower.

AA 0 →

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MINERA4-year run

Expected MiniBooNe and K2K measurements

Rein-Seghal model

Paschos- Kartavtsev model

MINERA’s nuclear targets allowthe first measurement of the

A-dependence of coh

across a wide A range.

A-range ofcurrent measurements

A

Data points: MINERA

Example of MINERA’s Analysis Potential Coherent Pion Production

FNAL User’s Meeting June 200517

Nuclear Effects

Most measurements of neutrino interactions have been on heavy nuclei. The statistics have generally been so poor that any changes to measured quantities due to nuclear effects could be safely neglected. No longer!

For example, oscillation of the W/Z into mesons can cause interactions with the nuclear medium that differ with A. This can cause shadowing effects which are substantial and different than what has been measured for e/-A scattering.

FNAL User’s Meeting June 200518

Nuclear EffectsPredicted difference -A vs e/-A

MINERA should be able to determine this ratio to a few % for > 6 GeV.

Sergey Kulagin modelLarger than expected rollover at low Q2

Q2 distribution for SciBar detector

MiniBooNEFrom J. Raaf(NOON04)

FNAL User’s Meeting June 200519

Helping MINOS and NOA/T2K

Measurement of m2 with MINOS Need to understand the relationship

between the incoming neutrino energy and the visible energy in the detector.

Current Accuracy of Low-energy Cross-sections.

Measurement of sin2 with NOA

Need absolute cross sections of background reactions.

Note: Calculations are for “old” NOA detector design. New detector design yields reduced systematic errors.

With MINER A measurements of cross sections.

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Current Status of MINERA

Received Stage I approval in April 2004. Successful summer 2004 R&D program concentrating on front-end

electronics and scintillator extrusions. Detailed costing and schedule module exists. Underwent first FNAL Director’s (Temple) Review in January 2005. MINERA is a project in PPD with project directorate approved by

Fermilab and project management plan currently under discussion. Developing prototypes of many components. Working with Fermilab to understand funding profiles and how to

get MINERA in the lab budget. Current scheduling model indicates construction starting in Oct.

2006 and installation-finishing/commissioning-starting in early Fall 2008.

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Conclusions

Neutrinos provide a unique probe of nucleon structure.

New beams have sufficient intensity to do experiments with good statistics with low mass detector (10-100 times better than previous experiments).

MINERA will provide greatly improved statistics for fundamental measurements and provide significant input for oscillation experiments.

Opportunity for unique and critical FNAL role in world neutrino efforts with a modest-scale project.