APS » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 100 » Issue 3

A. A. Aguilar-Arevalo,⁵ A. O. Bazarko,¹² S. J. Brice,⁷ B. C. Brown,⁷ L. Bugel,⁵ J. Cao,¹¹ L. Coney,⁵ J. M. Conrad,⁵ D. C. Cox,⁸ A. Curioni,¹⁶ Z. Djurcic,⁵ D. A. Finley,⁷ B. T. Fleming,¹⁶ R. Ford,⁷ F. G. Garcia,⁷ G. T. Garvey,⁹ C. Green,^7,9 J. A. Green,^8,9 T. L. Hart,⁴ E. Hawker,¹⁵ R. Imlay,¹⁰ R. A. Johnson,³ P. Kasper,⁷ T. Katori,⁸ T. Kobilarcik,⁷ I. Kourbanis,⁷ S. Koutsoliotas,² E. M. Laird,¹² J. M. Link,¹⁴ Y. Liu,¹¹ Y. Liu,¹ W. C. Louis,⁹ K. B. M. Mahn,⁵ W. Marsh,⁷ P. S. Martin,⁷ G. McGregor,⁹ W. Metcalf,¹⁰ P. D. Meyers,¹² F. Mills,⁷ G. B. Mills,⁹ J. Monroe,⁵ C. D. Moore,⁷ R. H. Nelson,⁴ P. Nienaber,¹³ S. Ouedraogo,¹⁰ R. B. Patterson,¹² D. Perevalov,¹ C. C. Polly,⁸ E. Prebys,⁷ J. L. Raaf,³ H. Ray,⁹ B. P. Roe,¹¹ A. D. Russell,⁷ V. Sandberg,⁹ R. Schirato,⁹ D. Schmitz,⁵ M. H. Shaevitz,⁵ F. C. Shoemaker,¹² D. Smith,⁶ M. Sorel,⁵ P. Spentzouris,⁷ I. Stancu,¹ R. J. Stefanski,⁷ M. Sung,¹⁰ H. A. Tanaka,¹² R. Tayloe,⁸ M. Tzanov,⁴ R. Van de Water,⁹ M. O. Wascko,¹⁰ D. H. White,⁹ M. J. Wilking,⁴ H. J. Yang,¹¹ G. P. Zeller,⁵ and E. D. Zimmerman⁴

(MiniBooNE Collaboration)

¹University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA
²Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA
³University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
⁴University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
⁵Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
⁶Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Arizona 86301, USA
⁷Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
⁸Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
⁹Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
¹⁰Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
¹¹University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
¹²Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
¹³Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, Winona, Minnesota 55987, USA
¹⁴Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
¹⁵Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois 61455, USA
¹⁶Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA

The observation of neutrino oscillations is clear evidence for physics beyond the standard model. To make precise measurements of this phenomenon, neutrino oscillation experiments, including MiniBooNE, require an accurate description of neutrino charged current quasielastic (CCQE) cross sections to predict signal samples. Using a high-statistics sample of _µ CCQE events, MiniBooNE finds that a simple Fermi gas model, with appropriate adjustments, accurately characterizes the CCQE events observed in a carbon-based detector. The extracted parameters include an effective axial mass, M=1.23±0.20 GeV, that describes the four-momentum dependence of the axial-vector form factor of the nucleon, and a Pauli-suppression parameter, =1.019±0.011. Such a modified Fermi gas model may also be used by future accelerator-based experiments measuring neutrino oscillations on nuclear targets.

©2008 The American Physical Society

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