Design, calibration, and performance of the MINERvA detector

L. Aliaga, L. Bagby, B. Baldin, A. Baumbaugh, A. Bodek, R. Bradford, W. K. Brooks, D. Boehnlein, S. Boyd, H. Budd, A. Butkevich, D. A. Martinez Caicedo, C. M. Castromonte, M. E. Christy, J. Chvojka, H. Da Motta, D. S. Damiani, I. Danko, M. Datta, J. DevanE. Draeger, S. A. Dytman, G. A. Díaz, B. Eberly, D. A. Edmondson, J. Felix, L. Fields, G. A. Fiorentini, R. S. Flight, A. M. Gago, H. Gallagher, C. A. George, J. A. Gielata, C. Gingu, R. Gran, J. Grange, N. Grossman, D. A. Harris, J. Heaton, A. Higuera, J. A. Hobbs, I. J. Howley, K. Hurtado, M. Jerkins, T. Kafka, M. O. Kantner, C. Keppel, J. Kilmer, M. Kordosky, A. H. Krajeski, G. J. Kumbartzki, H. Lee, A. G. Leister, G. Locke, G. Maggi, E. Maher, S. Manly, W. A. Mann, C. M. Marshall, K. S. McFarland, C. L. McGivern, A. M. McGowan, A. Mislivec, J. G. Morfín, J. Mousseau, D. Naples, J. K. Nelson, G. Niculescu, I. Niculescu, C. D. O'Connor, N. Ochoa, J. Olsen, B. Osmanov, J. Osta, J. L. Palomino, V. Paolone, J. Park, G. N. Perdue, C. Peña, A. Pla-Dalmau, L. Rakotondravohitra, R. D. Ransome, H. Ray, L. Ren, P. Rubinov, C. Rude, K. E. Sassin, H. Schellman, D. W. Schmitz, R. M. Schneider, E. C. Schulte, C. Simon, F. D. Snider, M. C. Snyder, C. J. Solano Salinas, N. Tagg, B. G. Tice, R. N. Tilden, J. P. Velásquez, T. Walton, A. Westerberg, J. Wolcott, B. A. Wolthuis, N. Woodward, T. Wytock, G. Zavala, H. B. Zeng, D. Zhang, L. Y. Zhu, B. P. Ziemer

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153 Scopus citations

Abstract

The MINERvA6 experiment is designed to perform precision studies of neutrino-nucleus scattering using νμ and ν̄μ neutrinos incident at 1-20 GeV in the NuMI beam at Fermilab. This article presents a detailed description of the MINERvA detector and describes the ex situ and in situ techniques employed to characterize the detector and monitor its performance. The detector is composed of a finely segmented scintillator-based inner tracking region surrounded by electromagnetic and hadronic sampling calorimetry. The upstream portion of the detector includes planes of graphite, iron and lead interleaved between tracking planes to facilitate the study of nuclear effects in neutrino interactions. Observations concerning the detector response over sustained periods of running are reported. The detector design and methods of operation have relevance to future neutrino experiments in which segmented scintillator tracking is utilized.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)130-159
Number of pages30
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume743
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 11 2014

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , which is operated by the Fermi Research Alliance, LLC , under Contract no. DE-AC02-07CH11359 , including the MINERvA construction project, with the United States Department of Energy . Construction support also was granted by the United States National Science Foundation under NSF Award PHY-0619727 and by the University of Rochester . Support for participating scientists was provided by DOE and NSF (USA) by CAPES and CNPq (Brazil), by CoNaCyT (Mexico), by CONICYT (Chile), by CONCYTEC, DGI-PUCP and IDI/IGI-UNI (Peru), by the Latin American Center for Physics (CLAF) and by FASI (Russia). The MINERvA Collaboration wishes to express its thanks to the MINOS Collaboration for the use of its near detector data, reconstruction, calibration and simulation. Finally, the authors are grateful to the staff of Fermilab for their contribution to this effort, during the design, construction, data taking and data analysis phases of the experiment.

Keywords

  • Cross-sections
  • MINERvA
  • Neutrinos
  • NuMI
  • Nuclear effects

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