We can all tell that a lump of coal, a steel ball bearing and a lead brick are very different from one another, just by using our eyes. On the other hand, we know they are all just made up of different numbers of protons and neutrons in their nuclei, their inner cores.
At MINERvA, we used neutrinos to see these materials, and sure enough, the protons and neutrons seem to know if they are inside coal, steel or lead. The surprise is that these “nuclear effects” are different from what you would predict from measurements using electrons to see those nuclei.
Brian Tice from Rutgers University will present the latest MINERvA measurements in a talk titled “Inclusive Neutrino Cross Section Ratios on Different Nuclei” at the Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar today at 4 p.m. in One West.
—Mousumi Datta