Improving the MINERvA medium energy neutrino flux prediction with in-situ neutrino electron scattering measurements

Neutrino beams are an essential tool for the study of neutrino physics since they provide a high-intensity source with a tunable energy range. A precise prediction of the neutrino flux is necessary, however, to make accurate measurements of cross-sections and neutrino oscillations. By measuring the theoretically clean process of elastic scattering of neutrinos on atomic electrons in the MINERvA detector we demonstrate that it is possible to decrease the uncertainty on the neutrino flux. This work shows a new measurement of the rate of antineutrino elastic scattering off electrons during the NuMI medium energy antineutrino-enhanced beam run. This is used in combination with the previous MINERvA results of neutrino-lepton scattering processes to further reduce the flux uncertainty.