Measurement ofK+production cross section by 8 GeV protons using high-energy neutrino interactions in the SciBooNE detector

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Abstract

The SciBooNE Collaboration reports ${K}^{+}$ production cross section and rate measurements using high-energy daughter muon neutrino scattering data off the SciBar polystyrene (${\mathrm{C}}_{8}{\mathrm{H}}_{8}$) target in the SciBooNE detector. The ${K}^{+}$ mesons are produced by 8 GeV protons striking a beryllium target in Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam line (BNB). Using observed neutrino and antineutrino events in SciBooNE, we measure $\frac{{d}^{2}\ensuremath{\sigma}}{dpd\ensuremath{\Omega}}=(5.34\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.76)\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mb}/(\mathrm{GeV}/c\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{sr})$ for $p+Be\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{K}^{+}+X$ at mean ${K}^{+}$ energy of 3.9 GeV and angle (with respect to the proton beam direction) of 3.7 degrees, corresponding to the selected ${K}^{+}$ sample. Compared to Monte Carlo predictions using previous higher energy ${K}^{+}$ production measurements, this measurement, which uses the NUANCE neutrino interaction generator, is consistent with a normalization factor of $0.85\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.12$. This agreement is evidence that the extrapolation of the higher energy ${K}^{+}$ measurements to an 8 GeV beam energy using Feynman scaling is valid. This measurement reduces the error on the ${K}^{+}$ production cross section from 40% to 14%.

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