Measurement of the production cross section of 31 GeV/c protons on carbon via beam attenuation in a 90-cm-long target

Le résumé fourni par la source

The production cross section of $30.92\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/c$ protons on carbon is measured by the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron by means of beam attenuation in a copy (replica) of the 90-cm-long target of the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment. The employed method for direct production cross-section estimation minimizes model corrections for elastic and quasielastic interactions. The obtained production cross section is ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{prod}}=227.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.8{(\mathrm{stat})}_{\ensuremath{-}3.2}^{+1.9}(\mathrm{sys})\ensuremath{-}0.8(\text{mod})\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mb}$. It is in agreement with previous NA61/SHINE results obtained with a thin carbon target, while providing improved precision with a total fractional uncertainty of less than 2%. This direct measurement will reduce the uncertainty of the T2K neutrino flux prediction.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.