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First Measurement of νe and νμ Interaction Cross Sections at the LHC with FASER’s Emulsion Detector

Roshan Mammen Abraham1, John Anders2, Claire Antel3, Akitaka Ariga4,5, Tomoko Ariga6,*, Jeremy Atkinson4, Florian U. Bernlochner7, Tobias Boeckh7, Jamie Boyd2 et al. (FASER Collaboration†)

Jamie Boyd2, Lydia Brenner8, Angela Burger2, Franck Cadoux3, Roberto Cardella3, David W. Casper1, Charlotte Cavanagh9, Xin Chen10, Andrea Coccaro11, Stephane Débieux3, Monica D’Onofrio9, Ansh Desai12, Sergey Dmitrievsky13, Sinead Eley9, Yannick Favre3, Deion Fellers12, Jonathan L. Feng1, Carlo Alberto Fenoglio3, Didier Ferrere3, Max Fieg1, Wissal Filali7, Haruhi Fujimori5, Ali Garabaglu14, Stephen Gibson15, Sergio Gonzalez-Sevilla3, Yuri Gornushkin13, Carl Gwilliam9, Daiki Hayakawa5, Shih-Chieh Hsu14, Zhen Hu10, Giuseppe Iacobucci3, Tomohiro Inada2, Luca Iodice3, Sune Jakobsen2, Hans Joos2,16, Enrique Kajomovitz17, Takumi Kanai5, Hiroaki Kawahara6, Alex Keyken15, Felix Kling18, Daniela Köck12, Pantelis Kontaxakis3, Umut Kose19, Rafaella Kotitsa2, Susanne Kuehn2, Thanushan Kugathasan3, Helena Lefebvre15, Lorne Levinson20, Ke Li14, Jinfeng Liu10, Margaret S. Lutz2, Jack MacDonald21, Chiara Magliocca3, Fulvio Martinelli3, Lawson McCoy1, Josh McFayden22, Andrea Pizarro Medina3, Matteo Milanesio3, Théo Moretti3, Magdalena Munker3, Mitsuhiro Nakamura23, Toshiyuki Nakano23, Friedemann Neuhaus21, Laurie Nevay2, Motoya Nonaka5, Kazuaki Okui5, Ken Ohashi4, Hidetoshi Otono6, Hao Pang10, Lorenzo Paolozzi3,2, Brian Petersen2, Markus Prim7, Michaela Queitsch-Maitland24, Hiroki Rokujo23, Elisa Ruiz-Choliz21, André Rubbia19, Jorge Sabater-Iglesias3, Osamu Sato23, Paola Scampoli4,25, Kristof Schmieden21, Matthias Schott21, Anna Sfyrla3, Mansoora Shamim2, Savannah Shively1, Yosuke Takubo26, Noshin Tarannum3, Ondrej Theiner3, Eric Torrence12, Svetlana Vasina13, Benedikt Vormwald2, Di Wang10, Yuxiao Wang10, Eli Welch1, Samuel Zahorec2,27, Stefano Zambito3, and Shunliang Zhang10 (FASER Collaboration†)

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-4575, USA
  • 2CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
  • 3Département de Physique Nucléaire et Corpusculaire, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
  • 4Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics, Laboratory for High Energy Physics, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
  • 5Department of Physics, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage-ku, 263-8522 Chiba, Japan
  • 6Kyushu University, Nishi-ku, 819-0395 Fukuoka, Japan
  • 7Universität Bonn, Regina-Pacis-Weg 3, D-53113 Bonn, Germany
  • 8Nikhef National Institute for Subatomic Physics, Science Park 105, 1098 XG Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 9University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom
  • 10Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
  • 11INFN Sezione di Genova, Via Dodecaneso, 33–16146, Genova, Italy
  • 12University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA
  • 13Affiliated with an international laboratory covered by a cooperation agreement with CERN
  • 14Department of Physics, University of Washington, P.O. Box 351560, Seattle, Washington 98195-1460, USA
  • 15Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
  • 16II. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
  • 17Department of Physics and Astronomy, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
  • 18Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
  • 19ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 20Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
  • 21Institut für Physik, Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • 22Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Sussex House, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RH, United Kingdom
  • 23Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan
  • 24School of Physics and Astronomy, Schuster Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
  • 25Dipartimento di Fisica “Ettore Pancini,” Università di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte S. Angelo, I-80126 Napoli, Italy
  • 26Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, KEK, Oho 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
  • 27Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

  • *Corresponding author: ariga@artsci.kyushu-u.ac.jp
  • †faser-publications@cern.ch
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 021802 – Published 11 July, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.021802

Abstract

The first results of the study of high-energy electron neutrino (νe) and muon neutrino (νμ) charged-current interactions in the FASERν emulsion-tungsten detector of the FASER experiment at the LHC are presented. A 128.8 kg subset of the FASERν volume was analyzed after exposure to 9.5  fb−1 of s=13.6  TeV pp data. Four (eight) νe (νμ) interaction candidate events are observed with a statistical significance of 5.2σ (5.7σ). This is the first direct observation of νe interactions at a particle collider and includes the highest-energy νe and νμ ever detected from an artificial source. The interaction cross section per nucleon σ/Eν is measured over an energy range of 560–1740 GeV (520–1760 GeV) for νe (νμ) to be (1.2−0.7+0.8)×10−38  cm2 GeV−1 [(0.5±0.2)×10−38  cm2 GeV−1], consistent with standard model predictions. These are the first measurements of neutrino interaction cross sections in those energy ranges.

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synopsis

First Direct Detection of Electron Neutrinos at a Particle Collider

Published 11 July, 2024

Electron neutrinos produced by proton–proton collisions at the LHC have been experimentally observed.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 021802– Published 11 July, 2024
  • Received 22 March 2024
  • Accepted 28 May 2024
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