Using neutrinos instead of light as the imaging tool, the first accurate representation of a proton was produced by the MINERvA experiment at Fermilab using the NuMI beam. The protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nucleus are made up of quarks and gluons that interact strongly with each other. Due to the strength of these interactions, it is difficult to calculate the structure of protons and neutrons theoretically.
Therefore, to detect their structure, scientists must use experimental techniques. It is difficult to extract information about the structure of protons from neutrino studies, as their targets are nuclei consisting of a large number of bound protons and neutrons.
Scientists made the first measurements of this structure with neutrinos, using unbound protons in the MINERvA detector by scattering neutrinos from protons that serve as the nuclei of hydrogen atoms.
The Sanford Underground Research Facility and DUNE are two of the key neutrino experiments being built by Impact Researchers. With the help of these experiments, neutrino properties can be measured precisely. This will provide an explanation of how neutrinos affect the structure of the universe.
These experiments require precise knowledge of the interactions between neutrinos and heavy experimental nuclei such as argon, as in the DUNE example. In developing a hypothesis for these interactions, it is necessary to distinguish between the binding effects of neutrinos to the nucleus and the scattering effects of neutrinos from protons or neutrons.
The MINERvA findings will contribute to the development of more comprehensive theories of neutrino interactions by identifying this property of free protons.
As a result of the hydrogen in MINERvA's detector being chemically mixed in half with carbon atoms in the plastic, the measurement detailed in this new study faces a number of challenges. Because the carbon atom has six protons, the carbon background reaction is significantly more intense.
The two types of reactions can be distinguished by the researchers creating a new method to determine the direction of the neutron ejected in the reaction, the anti-muon neutrino on the proton forms the anti-muon and the neutron.
Since no reactions are possible on hydrogen atoms in neutrino beams, this allows the remaining backgrounds to be analyzed using the same parallel process.
This structure measurement is interpreted as the axial vector form factor of the proton, which is a technical term for the structure resulting from neutrino scattering so that it can be used as an input for predictions of neutrino reactions.
source: scitechdaily
Günceleme: 21/04/2023 11:15