CERN Accelerating science

Scientific Committee Paper
Report number	CERN-SPSC-2021-021 ; SPSC-EOI-021
Title	Measurements of kaon and pion scattering in the WCTE facility at CERN
Project Manager/Technical Coordinator	Pavin, Matej
Author(s)	Bacca, S ; Barbi, M ; Bravar, A ; Berns, L ; Bhadra, S ; Bordoni, S ; Bubak, A ; de Perio, P ; Fedotov, S ; Fiorentini, A ; Friend, M ; Garde, CS ; Hagen, G ; Hartz, M ; Holeczek, J ; Jamieson, B ; Kakuno, H ; Khabibullin, M ; Khotjantsev, A ; Kisiel, J ; Kolev, N ; Konaka, A ; Kowalik, K ; Kowalski, S ; Kudenko, Y ; Lindner, A ; Mendez, PF ; Mineev, O ; Nagai, Y ; Pavin, M ; Puławski, S ; Sanchez, F ; Schmidt, K ; Scott, M ; Yershov, N
Corporate author(s)	CERN. Geneva. SPS and PS Experiments Committee ; SPSC
Series	(Expression of Interest)
Submitted by	[email protected] on 03 Jun 2021
Subject category	Detectors and Experimental Techniques
Abstract	This expression of interest describes a proposal to precisely measure forward hadron scattering cross-sections, namely measurement of total, coherent elastic, and quasi-elastic scatterings, on nuclear targets in the momentum range of1−10GeV/c. The experiment fills the data gap for precision hadronic scattering data in this range and complementary to the ongoing hadron production experiments, NA61/SHINE and EMPHATIC. This experiment uses the proposed Water Cherenkov Test Experiment (WCTE) facility [3] by changing the configuration of the tertiary beam components into the hadronic spectrometer. Additionally, the experiment uses a WCTE water Cherenkov detector to identify the scattered particles, mainly to separate pions from muons. Forward hadron scattering is currently one of the most significant systematic uncertainties in the neutrino flux prediction in long-baseline neutrino experiments, and this measurement will improve it significantly. The measurement will also improve simulations of hadronic interactions in particle detectors, which often contribute as a source of systematic uncertainties due to the lack of precise cross-section data. We propose to survey the phase space and compile data into a database in a format including covariance error matrix, which is essential for modern experimental analyses. Recently, there is excellent progress in ab-Initio calculations of scattering cross-section on nuclei in the low momentum transfer region, which is aimed at by this experiment. Comparing the results from this experiment with ab-initio effective field theory would potentially open up fruitful scientific studies and strengthen the confidence in applying ab-initio theory to neutrino scatterings.

Email contact(s) : [email protected] ; [email protected]