Version 2 2023-06-12, 09:07Version 2 2023-06-12, 09:07
Version 1 2023-06-09, 17:54Version 1 2023-06-09, 17:54
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 09:07authored byB Aharmim, S N Ahmed, A E Anthony, N Barros, E W Beier, A Bellerive, B Beltran, M Bergevin, S D Biller, R Bonventre, K Boujemline, M G Boulay, B Cai, E J Callaghan, J Caravaca, Simon PeetersSimon Peeters, SNO Collaboration, others
Neutron production in giga electron volt–scale neutrino interactions is a poorly studied process. We have measured the neutron multiplicities in atmospheric neutrino interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment and compared them to the prediction of a Monte Carlo simulation using GENIEand a minimally modified version of GEANT4. We analyzed 837 days of exposure corresponding to Phase I, using pure heavy water, and Phase II, using a mixture of Cl in heavy water. Neutrons produced in atmospheric neutrino interactions were identified with an efficiency of 15.3% and 44.3%, for Phases I and II respectively. The neutron production is measured as a function of the visible energy of the neutrino interaction and, for charged current quasielastic interaction candidates, also as a function of the neutrino energy. This study is also performed by classifying the complete sample into two pairs of event categories: charged current quasielastic and non charged current quasielastic, and ?µ and ?e. Results show good overall agreement between data and Monte Carlo for both phases, with some small tension with a statistical significance below 2s for some intermediate energies.