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Measurement of muon neutrino charged-current quasielasticlike cross section using off-axis NuMI beam at ICARUS

F. Abd Alrahman1, P. Abratenko2, N. Abrego-Martinez3, A. Aduszkiewicz1, F. Akbar4, L. Aliaga Soplin5, M. Artero Pons6, J. Asaadi5, W. F. Badgett7 et al. (ICARUS Collaboration)

W. F. Badgett7, B. Baibussinov6, B. Behera8, V. Bellini9, R. Benocci10, J. Berger11, S. Bertolucci12, M. Betancourt7, A. Blanchet13, F. Boffelli14, M. Bonesini10, T. Boone11, B. Bottino15, A. Braggiotti6,a, D. Brailsford16, S. J. Brice7, V. Brio9, C. Brizzolari10, H. S. Budd4, A. Campani15, A. Campos17, D. Carber11, M. Carneiro18, I. Caro Terrazas11, H. Carranza5, F. Castillo Fernandez5, S. Centro6, G. Cerati7, A. Chatterjee13, D. Cherdack1, S. Cherubini19, N. Chithirasreemadam20, M. Cicerchia6, T. E. Coan21, A. Cocco22, M. R. Convery23, L. Cooper-Troendle24, S. Copello14, H. Da Motta25, M. Dallolio5, A. A. Dange5, A. de Roeck13, S. Di Domizio15, L. Di Noto15, D. Di Ferdinando12, M. Diwan18, S. Dolan13, S. Donati20, F. Drielsma23, J. Dyer11, A. Falcone10, C. Farnese6, A. Fava7, N. Gallice18, C. Gatto22, D. Gibin6, A. Gioiosa20, W. Gu18, A. Guglielmi6, G. Gurung13,b, K. Hassinin1, H. Hausner7, A. Heggestuen11, B. Howard26,†,c, R. Howell4, Z. Hulcher23, G. Ingratta12, M. S. Ismail24, C. James7, W. Jang5, K. Jung4, Y.-J. Jwa23, L. Kashur11, W. Ketchum7, J. S. Kim4,*, D.-H. Koh23, J. Larkin4, Y. Li18, C. Mariani17, C. M. Marshall4, S. Martynenko18, N. Mauri12, K. S. McFarland4, D. P. Méndez18, A. Menegolli14, G. Meng6, O. G. Miranda3, A. Mogan11, N. Moggi12, E. Montagna12, C. Montanari7,d, A. Montanari12, M. Mooney11, M. Moore23, G. Moreno-Granados17, J. Mueller7, M. Murphy17, D. Naples24, S. Palestini13, M. Pallavicini15, V. Paolone24, L. Pasqualini12, L. Patrizii12, G. Petrillo23, C. Petta9, V. Pia12, F. Pietropaolo7,e, F. Poppi12, M. Pozzato12, M. L. Pumo19, G. Putnam7, X. Qian18, A. Rappoldi14, G. L. Raselli14, S. Repetto15, F. Resnati13, A. M. Ricci20, M. Rosenberg2, M. Rossella14, N. Rowe27, P. Roy17, C. Rubbia28, A. Ruggeri12, S. Saha24, G. Salmoria25, S. Samanta15, A. Scaramelli14, D. Schmitz27, A. Schukraft7, D. Senadheera24, S-H. Seo7, F. Sergiampietri13,f, G. Sirri12, J. S. Smedley4, J. Smith18, M. Sotgia15, L. Stanco6, J. Stewart18, H. A. Tanaka23, M. Tenti12, K. Terao23, F. Terranova10, V. Togo12, D. Torretta7, M. Torti10, R. Triozzi6, Y.-T. Tsai23, K. V. Tsang23, T. Usher23, F. Varanini6, N. Vardy11, S. Ventura6, M. Vicenzi18, C. Vignoli29, F. A. Wieler25, Z. Williams5, R. J. Wilson11, P. Wilson7, J. Wolfs4, T. Wongjirad2, A. Wood1, E. Worcester18, M. Worcester18, S. Yadav5, H. Yu18, J. Yu5, A. Zani30, J. Zennamo7, J. Zettlemoyer7, and S. Zucchelli12 (ICARUS Collaboration)

  • 1University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
  • 2Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
  • 3Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN (Cinvestav), Mexico City
  • 4University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
  • 5University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019, USA
  • 6INFN Sezione di Padova and University, Padova, Italy
  • 7Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
  • 8Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
  • 9INFN Sezione di Catania and University, Catania, Italy
  • 10INFN Sezione di Milano Bicocca and University, Milano, Italy
  • 11Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA
  • 12INFN Sezione di Bologna and University, Bologna, Italy
  • 13CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research 1211 Genève 23, Switzerland, CERN
  • 14INFN Sezione di Pavia and University, Pavia, Italy
  • 15INFN Sezione di Genova and University, Genova, Italy
  • 16Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, United Kingdom
  • 17Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA
  • 18Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
  • 19INFN LNS, Catania, Italy
  • 20INFN Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
  • 21Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
  • 22INFN Sezione di Napoli, Napoli, Italy
  • 23SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
  • 24University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
  • 25CBPF, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 26York University, Toronto, Canada
  • 27University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 28INFN GSSI, L’Aquila, Italy
  • 29INFN LNGS, Assergi, Italy
  • 30INFN Sezione di Milano, Milano, Italy

  • *Contact author: jkim393@UR.Rochester.edu
  • †Contact author: blhoward@yorku.ca
  • aAlso at Istituto di Neuroscienze, CNR, Padova, Italy.
  • bAlso at University of Texas, Arlington.
  • cAlso at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
  • dOn leave from INFN Pavia.
  • eAlso at INFN Padova and University.
  • fPresent address IPSI-INAF Torino, Italy.
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 052002 – Published 8 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3jfl-dczc

Abstract

This paper presents the first neutrino cross-section measurement from the ICARUS detector at Fermilab, using Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam data collected from two beam operation periods corresponding to 2.5×1020 protons-on-target in neutrino beam mode. The signal is defined by events with no pions produced in the final state, a topology dominated by charged-current quasielasticlike signatures. The measurement is reported as flux-averaged differential cross sections as functions of kinematic variables that provide sensitivity to the complex nuclear effects that often dominate the systematic uncertainty budgets of neutrino oscillation measurements. Specifically, this work reports cross sections in two angular variables—the angle of the outgoing lepton and the opening angle between the lepton and leading proton—and two variables characterizing the kinematic imbalance between the muon and proton in the plane transverse to the incoming neutrino. These results are compared against predictions from a variety of neutrino event generators, with p values calculated between the extracted cross sections and each prediction. Overall, the predictions agree with the data; however, the current budget of uncertainties does not yet provide sufficient discriminating power to favor a specific model.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 052002– Published 8 September, 2026
  • Received 29 April 2026
  • Accepted 25 June 2026
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