1. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 1 The MINER A Experiment Ronald Ransome Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Piscataway, NJ For the MINER A Collaboration

2. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 2 MINER A Main INjector ExpeRiment   MINER  is 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.

3. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 3 The MINER A Collaboration D. Drakoulakos, P. Stamoulis, G. Tzanakos, M. Zois University of Athens, Greece D. Casper#, J. Dunmore, C. Regis, B. Ziemer University of California, Irvine E. Paschos University of Dortmund D. Boehnlein, D. A. Harris#, N. Grossman, M. Kostin, J.G. Morfin*, A. Pla-Dalmau, P. Rubinov, P. Shanahan, P. Spentzouris Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory M.E. Christy, W. Hinton, C.E. Keppel Hampton University R. Burnstein, O. Kamaev, N. Solomey Illinois Institute of Technology S. Kulagin Institute for Nuclear Research, Russia I. Niculescu. G. Niculescu James Madison University G. Blazey, M.A.C. Cummings, V. Rykalin Northern Illinois University W.K. Brooks, A. Bruell, R. Ent, D. Gaskell, W. Melnitchouk, S. Wood Jefferson Lab S. Boyd, D. Naples, V. Paolone University of Pittsburgh A. Bodek, R. Bradford, H. Budd, J. Chvojka, P. de Barbaro, S. Manly, K. McFarland*, J. Park, W. Sakumoto, J. Steinman University of Rochester R. Gilman, C. Glasshausser, X. Jiang, G. Kumbartzki, R. Ransome#, E. Schulte Rutgers University A. Chakravorty Saint Xavier University D. Cherdack, H. Gallagher, T. Kafka, W.A. Mann, W. Oliver Tufts University J.K. Nelson#, F.X. Yumiceva The College of William and Mary * Co-Spokespersons # Members of the MINERvA Executive Committee Collaboration of Particle, Nuclear, and Theoretical physicists

4. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 4 Objectives of MINER A Physics Goals  Axial form factor of the nucleon t Yet to be accurately measured over a wide Q 2 range.  Resonance production in both NC and CC neutrino interactions t No statistically significant measurements with 1-5 GeV neutrinos. t 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 t Important backgrounds for proton decay.  Parton distribution functions t Measurement of high-x behavior of quarks.  Generalized parton distributions

5. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 5 Objectives of MINER A Helping oscillation experiments  Better understanding of relationship between observed energy and incident neutrino energy - MINOS t Improved measurement of exclusive cross sections.  Measurement of -initiated nuclear effects.  Much improved measurements of -nucleus exclusive cross sections –NO A and T2K t Nuclear (A) dependence.  Individual final states cross sections, esp.  0  production. t Intra-nuclear charge exchange.

6. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 6 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. t Identify exclusive final states.  Need a variety of targets to study nuclear dependence.

7. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 7 Lots of Neutrinos-NuMI Beam Line MINOS MINER A (see N. Saoulidou - MINOS talk). 20 GeV

8. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 8 The MINER A 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.

9. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 9 Active Detector Elements Basic element: 1.7x3.3cm triangular strips. 1.2mm WLS fiber readout in center hole Assemble into planes  MINER A optical system DDK Connectors Scintillator and embedded WLS Clear fiber Cookie M-64 PMT PMT Box

10. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 10 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

11. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 11 Neutrino-Nucleon Cross section NuMI flux range 1-20 GeV

12. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 12 Event Rates 16 Million total CC events in a 4 - year run Assume 16.0x10 20 in LE  ME, and HE configurations in 4 years Fiducial Volume = 3 tons CH, ≈ 0.6 t C, ≈ 1 t Fe and ≈ 1 t Pb Expected CC event samples: 8.6 M events in CH 1.4 M events in C 2.9 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 DIS2 M events  DIS and Structure Functions 4.1 M DIS events  Coherent Pion Production85 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

13. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 13 Form factor Measurements MINER A Measurement of Axial FF Vector form factors measured with electrons. G E /G M ratio varies with Q 2 - a surprise from JLab Axial form factor poorly known. Medium effects for F A measurement unknown - MINER A will use C, Fe, and Pb targets to check this. Expected MiniBooNe and K2K measurements

14. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 14 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.

15. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 15 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. The   shower and can be easily confused with an electron shower.

16. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 16 MINER A 4-year run Expected MiniBooNe and K2K measurements Rein-Seghal model Paschos- Kartavtsev model MINER A’s nuclear targets allow the first measurement of the A-dependence of  coh across a wide A range. A-range of current measurements A Data points: MINER A Example of MINER A’s Analysis Potential Coherent Pion Production

17. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 17 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.

18. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 18 Nuclear Effects Predicted difference -A vs e/  -A MINER A should be able to determine this ratio to a few % for  > 6 GeV. Sergey Kulagin model Larger than expected rollover at low Q 2 Q2 distribution for SciBar detector MiniBooNE From J. Raaf (NOON04)

19. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 19 Helping MINOS and NO A/T2K Measurement of  m 2 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 sin 2   with NO A  Need absolute cross sections of background reactions.  Note: Calculations are for “old” NO A detector design. New detector design yields reduced systematic errors. With MINER A measurements of cross sections.

20. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 20 Current Status of MINER A  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.  MINER A 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 MINER A in the lab budget.  Current scheduling model indicates construction starting in Oct. 2006 and installation-finishing/commissioning-starting in early Fall 2008.

21. FNAL User’s Meeting June 2005 21 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).  MINER A 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.