Measurement of ${K}^{+}$ production in charged-current ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}$ interactions

Measurement of $K^{+}$ production in charged-current $ν_{μ}$ interactions

C. M. Marshall et al. (MINERvA Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. D 94, 012002 – Published 14 July 2016

Abstract

Production of $K^{+}$ mesons in charged-current $ν_{μ}$ interactions on plastic scintillator (CH) is measured using MINERvA exposed to the low-energy NuMI beam at Fermilab. Timing information is used to isolate a sample of 885 charged-current events containing a stopping $K^{+}$ which decays at rest. The differential cross section in $K^{+}$ kinetic energy, $d σ / d T_{K}$ , is observed to be relatively flat between 0 and 500 MeV. Its shape is in good agreement with the prediction by the genie neutrino event generator when final-state interactions are included, however the data rate is lower than the prediction by 15%.