Scientific article
OA Policy
English

First Measurement of the Muon Neutrino Interaction Cross Section and Flux as a Function of Energy at the LHC with FASER

ContributorsFASER Collaboration
Published inPhysical review letters, vol. 134, no. 21, 211801
Publication date2025
First online date2025-05-27
Abstract

This Letter presents the measurement of the energy-dependent neutrino-nucleon cross section in tungsten and the differential flux of muon neutrinos and antineutrinos. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of (65.6±1.4)  fb-1. Using the active electronic components of the FASER detector, 338.1±21.0 charged current muon neutrino interaction events are identified, with backgrounds from other processes subtracted. We unfold the neutrino events into a fiducial volume corresponding to the sensitive regions of the FASER detector and interpret the results in two ways: (i) we use the expected neutrino flux to measure the cross section, and (ii) we use the predicted cross section to measure the neutrino flux. Both results are presented in six bins of neutrino energy, achieving the first differential measurement in the TeV range. The observed distributions align with standard model predictions. Using this differential data, we extract the contributions of neutrinos from pion and kaon decays.

Funding
  • Heising-Simons Foundation - [2018-1135]
  • Simons Foundation - [623683]
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science - [19H01909]
  • European Commission - Studying Neutrinos at the High Energy Frontier [101002690]
  • Horizon 2020 Framework Programme - [MUCCA CHIST-ERA-19-XAI-00]
  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - [05H20PDRC1]
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - [390833306]
  • Royal Society - [URF\R1\201519]
  • Science and Technology Facilities Council - [ST/T505870/1]
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China -
  • National Science Foundation - Collaborative Research: FASER and FASERnu at the Large Hadron Collider [2111427]
Citation (ISO format)
FASER Collaboration. First Measurement of the Muon Neutrino Interaction Cross Section and Flux as a Function of Energy at the LHC with FASER. In: Physical review letters, 2025, vol. 134, n° 21, p. 211801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.211801
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Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0031-9007
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Creation06/18/2025 6:43:15 AM
First validation06/24/2025 12:31:55 PM
Update time09/16/2025 12:01:35 PM
Status update09/16/2025 12:01:35 PM
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