First measurement of the total inelastic cross section of positively charged kaons on argon at energies between 5.0 and 7.5 GeV

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ First measurement of the total inelastic cross section of positively charged kaons on argon at energies between 5.0 and 7.5 GeV © Authors Published version DUNE Collaboration DUNE Collaboration. (2024). First measurement of the total inelastic cross section of positively charged kaons on argon at energies between 5.0 and 7.5 GeV. Physical Review D, 110, Article 092011. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.110.092011 2024 First measurement of the total inelastic cross section of positively charged kaons on argon at energies between 5.0 and 7.5 GeV A. Abed Abud et al.* (DUNE Collaboration) (Received 2 August 2024; accepted 20 September 2024; published 14 November 2024) ProtoDUNE Single-Phase (ProtoDUNE-SP) is a 770-ton liquid argon time projection chamber that operated in a hadron test beam at the CERN Neutrino Platform in 2018. We present a measurement of the total inelastic cross section of charged kaons on argon as a function of kaon energy using 6 and 7GeV=c beam momentum settings. The flux-weighted average of the extracted inelastic cross section at each beam momentum setting was measured to be 380 26 mbarns for the 6GeV=c setting and 379 35 mbarns for the 7GeV=c setting. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.110.092011 I. INTRODUCTION Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) may be used to measure the trajectories of charged particles with millimeter resolution. This capability makes the detectors, like those of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) far detector modules, sensitive to studying GeV- scale and MeV-scale neutrinos and searching for physics beyond the Standard Model [1]. An example of important physics that can be done using the DUNE far detector modules is a search for proton decay to a final state with a neutrino and a charged kaon (p→νþKþ), which is predicted to be dominant in a broad class of supersymmetric grand unified theories [2–6]. Unlike searches in water Cherenkov detectors [7], DUNE can detect the final-state kaon, which has a momentum of 330 MeV=c absent finalstate interactions. The efficiency of observing this signature is sensitive to modeling kaon transport in the LAr medium, which is limited by the dearth of kaon-argon scattering data. This search for nucleon decay requires a representative model of kaon transport and interactions in liquid argon to ensure an accurate simulation of signal events. Without reliable data and simulations, the relevant uncertainties for the kaon cross section on argon cannot be constrained. This can lead to large systematic uncertainties in nucleon decay searches with a potentially biased crosssection model. As a first step toward collecting high-quality kaonargon interaction data, the ProtoDUNE Single-Phase (ProtoDUNE-SP) large-scale prototype of a DUNE far detector module was exposed to a test beam from the H4-VLE beamline at CERN that included kaons at 6 and 7GeV=c [8,9]. ProtoDUNE-SP is a 770-ton LArTPC with the same drift distance and full-scale engineering parts as a DUNE Far Detector Horizontal Drift module. It measures the tracking and calorimetry of charged particles by detecting the ionization electrons that drift toward three layers of wire planes. The H4-VLE beamline, a tertiary beam from the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron, is referred to as simply the “beam”in many places in this paper. ProtoDUNE-SP collected data from the beam, using many beamline momentum settings, over two months from September 2018 to November 2018. The data from ProtoDUNE-SP can be used by event generators that simulate hadron-nucleus interactions, like the neutrino event generator GENIE [10–14] and the transport and interaction simulation program GEANT 4[15–17], to improve the modeling of kaon interactions on argon nuclei. The kaon-argon cross section has never been measured as a function of energy on argon. Therefore, the purpose of this analysis is to provide the first measurement of the total inelastic cross section of kaons on argon at these high energies. Neither GENIE nor GEANT 4has recommended uncertainties for kaon-argon interactions, providing a unique opportunity for ProtoDUNE-SP to inform inputs on associated modeling uncertainties. In this work, the kaon-argon total inelastic cross section is reported as a function of kaon energy within the limits of the detection threshold, described in Sec. IV. Figure 1 shows the total inelastic and the elastic cross section predicted by the GEANT 4Bertini cascade model [15–17]. Charged kaons produced by the beam with kinetic energies of approximately 4.5 to 7 GeV are capable of reaching the liquid argon of ProtoDUNE-SP. Using the GEANT 4pre- diction from Fig. 1, the simulated total inelastic cross *Full author list given at the end of the article. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3. PHYSICAL REVIEW D 110, 092011 (2024) 2470-0010=2024=110(9)=092011(22) 092011-1 Published by the American Physical Society section at the relevant energies should be approximately 450 millibarns (mbarns). Section II discusses ProtoDUNE-SP more broadly, and Sec. III outlines the simulation and reconstruction of ProtoDUNE-SP data. Section IV explains the thin slice method used in this measurement. This method divides the detector into thin targets, referred to as thin slices, using the wires of the LArTPC to demarcate the slices. An incident slice is counted if a particle reaches a particular wire. Within that slice, it may also interact on the argon, which means the slice contains both an incident and an interacting slice. After an interacting slice is detected, the counting for the event stops as the outgoing particles have unknown identities and energies. The cross section is measured using the counts of the incident and interacting slices as a function of kinetic energy. Section Vdescribes the selection of candidate kaon interaction events, and Sec. VI shows energy-related measurements using selected kaons. Section VII reports the kaon-argon cross section with comparisons to models. Section VIII discusses the evaluations of the statistical and systematic uncertainties. II. PROTODUNE-SP AND THE H4-VLE BEAMLINE ProtoDUNE-SP is a 770-ton liquid argon detector that is 7.2 m wide, 6.1 m high, and 7 m long. It has two TPCs, each with a drift distance of 3.6 m [9]. The detector contains six readout wire planes called anode plane assemblies (APAs), with three APAs for each drift volume. Each APA contains three readout wire planes—the U, V, and X wire planes—and are 6.2 m high, 2.3 m long, and 0.1 m thick [9]. The U and V wires are the first two planes and detect drifting electrons via the currents induced on the wires as the charges drift past them, creating bipolar signals. The X wires, known as collection wires, have unipolar signals where the drifting electrons collect on the wires and stop drifting in the TPC [9]. The U, V, and X wires are oriented 35.7°, −35.7°, and 0° relative to the vertical direction, respectively. The pitch between wires is 0.467 cm for induction wires and 0.479 cm for collection wires. Each APA has 960 X wires, 800 U wires, and 800 V wires. Three APAs are installed in a 7 m line and sit in front of one sidewall of the cryostat, and the other three APAs are installed in a similar fashion in front of the opposite sidewall of the cryostat. These APAs are 7.2 m away from each other, and the cathode plane assembly (CPA) sits midway between the two separate walls of APAs. The CPA provides a high voltage of 180 kV, leading to a nominal electric field strength of 500 V=cm across the 3.6 m separating each APA from the CPA, which allows the ionization electrons to drift to the APAs. The H4-VLE beam pipe connects to the upstream face of LArTPC via a low-density beam plug that allows the beam to enter without scattering off the material in the cryostat [8,9]. The beam only enters one TPC of the detector. The beam side of the detector has the vertical gap between APAs instrumented with electron diverters that intend to improve charge-collection efficiency for electrons drifting near the gap between neighboring APAs. Unfortunately, these electron diverters exhibited high-voltage shorts and were left electrically grounded during operations, distorting the track images and causing some loss of collected charge. As a surface-based detector, ProtoDUNE-SP is exposed to an intense flux of cosmic-ray muons, which create electron-ion pairs in the detector. The argon ions drift slower than the ionization electrons, leading to an excess of ions around the surface of the detector. The excess of ions creates a space charge effect that alters the local electric field, leading to distorted calorimetry and tracking [19]. A calibration of the space charge effect is completed by measuring the tracking distortions on the surfaces of the detector, where the effect is maximal, with cosmic-ray muon data [8]. The distortions measured are then used to correct for local electric field fluctuations by using a linearly interpolated three-dimensional map. An “inverted” map using these data measurements is used to recreate the space charge effect in simulation. The original threedimensional map is utilized to calibrate this effect in simulation. From September 2018 to early November 2018, the H4-VLE beamline settings were adjusted to emit positively charged particles at 0.3, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7GeV=c beamline momentum settings. The beamline trigger operates at a rate of 25 Hz, which qualitatively translates to beam particles being observed one at a time within ProtoDUNE-SP. The beam consists of positively charged protons, positrons, kaons, pions, and muons. The beam particle species is identified using a time-of-flight system and Cherenkov detectors. The beam particle momentum is measured from the bend of the particle’s trajectory through FIG. 1. GEANT 4predicted total inelastic cross section and elastic cross section of positively charged kaons on argon as a function of kinetic energy [15–17]. Predictions made using interfaces in Ref. [18]. A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-2 a well-known magnetic field using data from tracking fibers [8,20]. The 6GeV=c and 7GeV=c beam momentum settings are the only settings that produce kaons that reach ProtoDUNE-SP. The kaons are identified using only the Cherenkov detectors, explicitly requiring a signal in the high-pressure Cherenkov detector but no signal in the lowpressure Cherenkov detector [8]. III. SIMULATION AND RECONSTRUCTION A simulation of the beam, including its transport to and through the LArTPC, is implemented using GEANT 4 [15–17], with the entire CERN H4-VLE facility simulated from the primary beam to the tertiary beam that reaches ProtoDUNE-SP [20]. The selection of kaon inelastic scattering events starts with the beamline instrumentation discussed in Sec. II. A kaon event is defined as any time the beamline instrumentation has a signal recorded by the highpressure Cherenkov detector and the absence of a signal recorded by the low-pressure Cherenkov detector [8]. The rest of the selection steps rely on information from the reconstruction of tracks and showers in the TPC to select relevant events. Additionally, the beamline instrumentation also has tracking fibers to reconstruct a beam track that can be extrapolated to the TPC [8,20]. These steps will be described in Sec. V. ProtoDUNE-SP uses the Pandora multialgorithm reconstruction package to identify the beam particle, reconstructing particle hierarchies using pattern recognition [8,21,22]. It then employs a boosted decision tree to select beam particle candidates that enter through the beam pipe and beam plug into the liquid argon detector. A full description of the software used in ProtoDUNE-SP is given in Refs. [8,22]. Figure 2shows the observed and simulated distributions of the reconstructed track lengths for events with a beam kaon, as determined by the beamline instrumentation, for the 6GeV=c samples. The corresponding distributions for the reconstructed track lengths and all other event selection distributions for the 7GeV=c samples showed similar agreement and are included in the Appendix. The spikes in Fig. 2at around 230 cm and 460 cm correspond to broken tracks caused by the electron diverters that sit in the gaps between the APAs, as discussed in the previous section, with the last spike at around 700 cm corresponding to the end of the active volume. Most TPC tracks are secondary particles without any TPC-related selection steps. An excess of short reconstructed track lengths is observedinthedata,likelydrivenbybackgroundsecondary particles. The interaction point—or track endpoint—is determined using clustering and vertex-finding algorithms that are almost identical to those from the MicroBooNE reconstruction and are described in detail in Ref. [23]. The initial clustering aims to make small clusters that contain energy depositions from a single particle and avoid erroneously clustering energy from multiple particles into a single cluster. Numerous algorithms then associate these pure clusters together, aiming to produce a single cluster containing all energy depositions from a single particle. In addition, algorithms are applied to split clusters if kinks are found or where the topology suggests that there may be contributions from multiple particles. These clusters are classified as either tracks or showers based on their topologies. Candidate 3D interaction points are produced by comparing pairs of clusters from two 2D views and reconstructing their start and end points as candidate interaction points. Pandora uses a boosted decision tree to select the vertex candidate most likely to correspond to the interaction point of the beam particle. The signal process is an inelastic interaction of the incident kaon. An inelastic interaction in this analysis is defined as any process where either: (i) the angle between the beam kaon and leading outgoing particle is greater than 11 degrees (ii) two or more particles emerge from the interaction point. The kinetic energy threshold for observing a final-state proton or charged kaon in the detector is 40 MeV, and for a charged pion it is 20 MeV. We apply these restrictions to our signal definition. IV. METHODOLOGY The cross-section measurements presented in this paper use the thin slice method pioneered by the LArIAT experiment [24,25]. The approach treats the detector as a series of thin argon targets (slices). The number of surviving particles (Nsurv) is: FIG. 2. Reconstructed track length for simulation and data without any TPC-related selection steps at the 6GeV=c beamline setting. Events in simulation are classified by the true identities and fates of the reconstructed TPC tracks, including secondary particles (sec.) from kaon interactions that are misidentified as the beam particle. Only statistical uncertainties from the statistics in data are shown. The statistics of the simulation are scaled to match the normalization of all data events, including those without a reconstructed track in the TPC. FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE TOTAL INELASTIC CROSS …PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-3 NsurvðdÞ¼Ninc expð−d=lÞ¼Ninc expð−σdnÞ;ð1Þ where Ninc is the number of incident particles, dis the distance traveled, and l¼ðnσÞ−1is the interaction length of a kaon in argon, where nis the number density and σis the cross section. AnaturalwaytodevelopslicesinaLArTPCwitha wire readout is to use the individual wires to demarcate thin target slices from one another. Therefore, a slice is a three-dimensional box of argon between wires. For each particle, the incident energy at each thin slice is estimated. The total number of particles at each incident energy (Ninc) is counted, as are the total number of interactions (Nint). Regardless of whether or not there was an interaction, if an energy deposit from the kaon is registered in a thin target slice, then the slice is counted in the bin corresponding to the kinetic energy of the kaon in that slice (Ninc). The cross section, using Eq. (1),is: σðEkinÞ¼ MAr NArρlnNincðEkinÞ NincðEkinÞ−NintðEkinÞ;ð2Þ where Ekin is the kinetic energy of the particle, NAis the Avogadro constant, MAr is the atomic mass of argon, ρis the density of liquid argon, and ris the three-dimensional distance the particle travels from one wire to the next [24,25]. The value of ris 0.498 cm, given the wire spacing between the collection plane wires of 0.479 cm and that the beam travels at a 16-degree angle in the detector. The kinetic energy at a given slice (Ekin;j) is reconstructed as: Ekin;j¼Ekin;beam −X j−1 i¼0 ΔEi;ð3Þ where Ekin;beam is the initial beam particle kinetic energy and ΔEiis the measured energy lost in slice i. The total ΔE is summed from all slices up to slice j. Background subtractions, unsmearing, and efficiency corrections are required to convert the measured interaction and incident spectra into a cross section. These corrections are applied via RooUnfold with unfolding done using a Bayesianlike unfolding algorithm implemented based on Richardson-Lucy deconvolution [26–30]. The process includes background subtraction, unsmearing, and efficiency corrections. These corrections are applied on the incident and interacting slice distributions separately, an approach similar to that previously used by LArIAT [25]. These unfolded distributions of the incident and interacting slices are then used in Eq. (2) to measure the cross section as a function of kinetic energy. V. EVENT SELECTION There are three event selection steps to select candidate kaons and an additional step to select a candidate kaon with an inelastic interaction. They include the following selection steps for events where the beamline trigger reports a kaon candidate: (i) the event must have a reconstructed TPC track. (ii) the endpoint of the TPC track must enter the fiducial volume by being at least 30 cm downstream of the start of the active volume of the detector. This selection step is motivated by significant inefficiencies and impurities in correctly identifying and reconstructing the beam particle with a TPC track in the first 30 cm of the detector. (iii) the TPC track must be matched to the trajectory of the beam track from the beamline instrumentation. A match requires that their positions and angles agree within three times the standard deviations of the distributions for these measurements at the start of the fiducial volume. Because the electron diverters tend to break tracks, as discussed in Sec. II, only the interaction and incident slices contained before the point of 220 cm across the detector length, which corresponds to collection plane wire 464, are considered in the cross section measurement. This is the final step. At each collection wire, the kaon energy is estimated per Eq. (3), and the kaon either undergoes an interaction or does not. Thus, for each incident particle, we observe many “slices”and record the interaction as a function of energy. The interaction point—or vertex—identification occurs through Pandora as described in Sec. III. Event displays of some selected kaon inelastic interaction candidates are shown in Fig. 3. In these events, the beam enters the TPC at time tick 4750, where a time tick represents the 500 ns sampling intervals of the analog-to-digital converters for the wires, and then it travels over 50 cm before interacting with the argon. The beam particles, highlighted by the black ovals, travel in approximately straight lines from the left to the right before scattering, creating complicated final states with many showers. The top two event displays show little shower activity, indicating they may be candidate events with a final state with one positively charged kaon and other nonstrange hadrons. The third event display shows a complex interaction with many showers and tracks in the final state. Figure 4shows the distributions of reconstructed track lengths for selected TPC tracks that will form the incident and interacting slice spectra from the 6GeV=c beamline setting. Secondary kaons, which are byproducts of true beam kaons interacting off the argon and traveling with some unknown kinetic energies, are the most significant background for the event selection. As these secondary kaons will have similar characteristics to beam kaons, they A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-4 are an irreducible background. The breakdown of the data andsimulationsamplesthrougheachselectionstepare shown in Table I. The selection efficiency and purity are evaluated as a function of kinetic energy from simulation. An inefficiency in measuring a slice of kinetic energy occurs when no TPC track corresponds to the beam particle in the slice. A background slice occurs when there is a TPC track in a slice that the true kaon does not reach. The definition for a background slice is used regardless of whether the TPC track is from a true kaon or not, which allows the analysis to fully recover the truth-level distributions when unfolding reconstruction information taken from the nominal simulation. Results are shown in Fig. 5. The purity is close to 95% for interacting slices and 85% for incident slices. The lower purity is because a single background particle entering the detector contributes to many noninteracting slices, but only a single inelastic interaction can occur per particle. The efficiency varies between 35 and 40% as a function of energy. The inefficiencies are dominated by events with a true kaon in the fiducial volume, but the event did not have a TPC track identified as the beam particle. VI. ENERGY MEASUREMENTS AND BINNING As referenced in Eq. (3), the initial kinetic energy is determined using measurements from the beamline FIG. 3. Three candidate event displays of selected beam kaons, highlighted in black, that inelastically interact on the argon from data taken in early November 2018. The beam travels from the left to the right at an angle of approximately 16 degrees. Cosmicray muons can be seen in the foreground and background of the beam event, and a nonfunctioning wire can be observed near wire 370. FIG. 4. Reconstructed track length for simulation and data of the 6GeV=c beamline setting for selected kaons (top) and for selected kaons that interact within the fiducial volume (bottom). Only statistical uncertainties are shown for the data, and the statistics from the simulation are scaled to match those from the data. FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE TOTAL INELASTIC CROSS …PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-5 instrumentation. Figure 6displays the beamline kinetic energy measurements of the selected beam kaons. The impact of the systematic uncertainty is found by shifting the data distribution by the 1.2% kinetic energy modeling uncertainty of the beamline simulation, which will be discussed in greater detail in Sec. VIII. TheTPCcalorimetryiscalibratedbyapplyingcorrections to the electric field variations, corrections for the spatial variations, and an overall charge scale using through-going and stopping cosmic-ray muons [8]. The energy resolution was evaluated and done by measuring the difference between the true and reconstructed kinetic energies at the interaction points in the simulation. The minimum resolution is measured to be 124 MeV, as seen in Fig. 7. TABLE I. Information on the fractions of the samples remaining for data and simulation after each selection step from the left (beamline reports a candidate kaon) to the right (candidate kaon has an interaction in the fiducial volume). In this table, a beam kaon with an inelastic interaction in the fiducial volume is defined as a signal event. Selection step Beam (%) TPC track (%) Fiducial (%) Beam-TPC match (%) Contained interaction (%) 6GeV=c data 100.0 58.0 46.0 25.4 18.6 7GeV=c data 100.0 55.6 44.8 27.3 19.5 6GeV=c sim total 100.0 55.0 44.7 29.1 23.2 6GeV=c sim signal 24.9 24.4 24.0 21.8 20.9 6GeV=c sim bkg 75.1 30.6 20.7 7.3 2.2 7GeV=c sim total 100.0 45.1 36.5 24.0 19.1 7GeV=c sim signal 20.9 20.4 20.0 18.3 17.5 7GeV=c sim bkg 79.1 24.7 16.5 5.6 1.5 FIG. 5. Purity (top) and efficiency (bottom) of the event selection for each bin for the 6GeV=c simulation sample. FIG. 6. Initial beam particle kinetic energy as measured by the beamline instrumentation for selected kaon candidate tracks for the 6GeV=c beamline setting. Both systematic and statistical uncertainties are shown. FIG. 7. Kinetic energy resolution at the interaction point of beam particles that pass all selection criteria for interacting kaons in the 6GeV=c simulation sample. The distribution has a mean energy bias of 0.50 MeV. The distribution is not scaled to the statistics in the data. A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-6 However, there are systematic uncertainties associated with the simulation of the detector response and limited statistics, making this not the definitive resolution. For example, there is a 3% uncertainty on the calorimetry calibration and a 1.2% uncertainty on the beam momentum measurement, which corresponds to a maximum energy discrepancy of approximately 80 MeV. The binning of the analysis ensures equal statistics in each bin for the reconstructed interacting slice distributions in the data sample for both beam momentum settings. The minimum bin size is then 260 MeV, which is greater than the resolution measured in simulation and the uncertainties from calorimetry. The reconstructed slice distributions, highlighting both the binning and slice distributions as a function of energy, are shown for incident slices in Fig. 8and for interacting slices in Fig. 9. Calorimetric-related uncertainties, fully discussed in Sec. VIII, are applied to these distributions. VII. RESULTS The kinetic energy distributions for all kaons—and for interacting kaons—are separately unfolded using the method of D’Agostini with four iterations [26–29]. The smearing matrices are shown in Figs. 10 and 11. Studies were done to test unfolding by altering the regularization, not correcting for bin-to-bin smearing, and changing the background subtraction and efficiency corrections. All had an impact of less than a percent on the average cross section compared to the nominal unfolding process described above. The response matrix is obtained using only 66% of the simulated data, which was done to use the remaining 33% as statistically independent fake data samples for investigating systematic uncertainties. The reconstructed slice spectra, shown in Figs. 8and 9, are unfolded and then used to measure the cross section with Eq. (2) with uncertainties that will be described in Sec. VIII. Figure 12 displays the result for the data of the FIG. 8. Reconstructed incident slice distributions between the data and simulation for the 6GeV=c beamline setting (top) and the 7GeV=c beamline setting (bottom). A calorimetric slice-by- slice uncertainty of 3% and a beam kinetic energy scale uncertainty of 1.2% are applied to the data. Statistics for the simulation are scaled to match the normalization from the data. FIG. 9. Reconstructed interacting slice distributions between the data and simulation for the 6GeV=c sample (top) and the 7GeV=c sample (bottom). A calorimetric slice-by-slice uncertainty of 3% and a beam kinetic energy scale uncertainty of 1.2% are applied to the data. Statistics for the simulation are scaled to match the normalization of incident slices from the data. FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE TOTAL INELASTIC CROSS …PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-7 6GeV=c sample with comparisons to predicted cross sections from GEANT 4, GENIE v3.2.0 hA2018, and GENIE v3.2.0 hN2018 [10–12,14–17,31]. GENIE calculates the total cross section using data and partial wave analysis [32].It simulates interactions with either an empirical model (hA2018) or a fully simulated cascade (hN2018) [11,14]. GEANT 4applies alterations of the base model cross section using data sets included in the Particle Data Group FIG. 10. Response matrices for the 6GeV=c simulation sample of the interacting (left) and incident (right) spectra. The entries in the matrices are normalized so that the rows sum to one. FIG. 11. Response matrices for the 7GeV=c simulation sample of the interacting (left) and incident (right) spectra. The entries in the matrices are normalized so that the rows sum to one. FIG. 12. Extracted total inelastic cross section from beam kaons at the momentum setting of 6GeV=c (left) with comparisons to GENIE v3.2.0 and GEANT 4[10–12,14–17,31]. The relative uncertainties of the measurements are also shown (right). The hA2018 and hN2018 cascade simulations of GENIE provide nearly the same prediction, and their distributions overlap. A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-8 J. Bhatt,203 M. Bhattacharjee ,89 M. Bhattacharya,66 S. Bhuller ,19 B. Bhuyan ,89 S. Biagi ,105 J. Bian ,24 K. Biery ,66 B. Bilki ,15,108 M. Bishai ,20 A. Bitadze ,135 A. Blake ,125 F. D. Blaszczyk ,66 G. C. Blazey ,149 E. Blucher ,37 A. Bodek ,175 J. Bogenschuetz,197 J. Boissevain,129 S. Bolognesi,34 T. Bolton ,119 L. Bomben,98,107 M. Bonesini ,98,140 C. Bonilla-Diaz ,32 F. Bonini ,20 A. Booth ,172 F. Boran ,91 S. Bordoni ,35 R. Borges Merlo,30 A. Borkum ,191 N. Bostan ,108 R. Bouet,131 J. Boza,44 J. Bracinik ,16 B. Brahma ,90 D. Brailsford ,125 F. Bramati,98 A. Branca ,98 A. Brandt ,197 J. Bremer ,35 C. Brew ,178 S. J. Brice ,66 V. Brio,93 C. Brizzolari,98,140 C. Bromberg ,139 J. Brooke ,19 A. Bross ,66 G. Brunetti ,98,140 M. Brunetti ,209 N. Buchanan ,44 H. Budd ,175 J. Buergi,14 A. Bundock ,19 D. Burgardt,211 S. Butchart,191 V. G. Caceres,23 I. Cagnoli,92,17 T. Cai ,216 R. Calabrese ,100 R. Calabrese ,94,67 J. Calcutt ,155 L. Calivers ,14 E. Calvo ,39 A. Caminata ,96 A. F. Camino,168 W. Campanelli ,127 A. Campani ,96,71 A. Campos Benitez,207 N. Canci ,100 J. Capó,84 I. Caracas,134 D. Caratelli ,27 D. Carber ,44 J. M. Carceller,35 G. Carini,20 B. Carlus,110 M. F. Carneiro ,20 P. Carniti ,98 I. Caro Terrazas,44 H. Carranza,197 N. Carrara,23 L. Carroll,119 T. Carroll ,213 A. Carter,176 E. Casarejos ,206 D. Casazza ,94 J. F. Castaño Forero,7F. A. Castaño,6A. Castillo ,182 C. Castromonte ,106 E. Catano-Mur ,212 C. Cattadori ,98 F. Cavalier ,160 F. Cavanna ,66 S. Centro ,158 G. Cerati ,66 C. Cerna,131 A. Cervelli ,92 A. Cervera Villanueva,84 K. Chakraborty ,166 S. Chakraborty ,86 M. Chalifour ,35 A. Chappell ,209 N. Charitonidis ,35 A. Chatterjee ,166 H. Chen ,20 M. Chen ,24 W. C. Chen,199 Y. Chen ,184 Z. Chen-Wishart,176 D. Cherdack ,81 C. Chi,45 F. Chiapponi,92 R. Chirco ,87 N. Chitirasreemadam,103,167 K. Cho ,122 S. Choate ,108 D. Chokheli ,72 P. S. Chong,164 B. Chowdhury,8D. Christian ,66 A. Chukanov ,†M. Chung,202 E. Church ,157 M. F. Cicala,203 M. Cicerchia,158 V. Cicero,92,17 R. Ciolini ,103 P. Clarke ,57 G. Cline,126 T. E. Coan ,188 A. G. Cocco ,100 J. A. B. Coelho,161 A. Cohen,161 J. Collazo,206 J. Collot ,76 E. Conley ,55 J. M. Conrad,136 M. Convery ,184 S. Copello ,96 P. Cova,99,162 C. Cox,176 L. Cremaldi ,144 L. Cremonesi ,172 J. I. Crespo-Anadón,39 M. Crisler ,66 E. Cristaldo ,98,10 J. Crnkovic ,66 G. Crone,203 R. Cross ,209 A. Cudd ,43 C. Cuesta ,39 Y. Cui ,26 F. Curciarello ,95 D. Cussans ,19 J. Dai,76 O. Dalager,66 R. Dallavalle,161 W. Dallaway ,199 R. D’Amico,94,67 H. da Motta ,33 Z. A. Dar,212 R. Darby,191 L. Da Silva Peres,65 Q. David,110 G. S. Davies ,144 S. Davini ,96 J. Dawson ,161 R. De Aguiar,30 P. De Almeida,30 P. Debbins ,108 I. De Bonis,51 M. P. Decowski,146,3 A. de Gouvêa,150 P. C. De Holanda,30 I. L. De Icaza Astiz,191 P. De Jong ,146,3 P. Del Amo Sanchez,51 A. De la Torre,39 G. De Lauretis,110 A. Delbart,34 D. Delepine ,77 M. Delgado ,98,140 A. Dell’Acqua,35 G. Delle Monache,95 N. Delmonte ,99,162 P. De Lurgio,8R. Demario,139 G. De Matteis,97 J. R. T. de Mello Neto,65 D. M. DeMuth ,205 S. Dennis ,29 C. Densham ,178 P. Denton ,20 G. W. Deptuch ,20 A. De Roeck ,35 V. De Romeri ,84 J. P. Detje ,29 J. Devine ,35 R. Dharmapalan ,79 M. Dias ,201 A. Diaz ,28 J. S. Díaz,91 F. Díaz,169 F. Di Capua ,100,145 A. Di Domenico ,181,104 S. Di Domizio ,96,71 S. Di Falco ,103 L. Di Giulio,35 P. Ding ,66 L. Di Noto ,96,71 E. Diociaiuti ,95 C. Distefano ,105 R. Diurba ,14 M. Diwan ,20 Z. Djurcic ,8 D. Doering,184 S. Dolan ,35 F. Dolek ,207 M. J. Dolinski,54 D. Domenici ,95 L. Domine ,184 S. Donati ,103,167 Y. Donon,35 S. Doran,109 D. Douglas ,184 T. A. Doyle,189 A. Dragone ,184 F. Drielsma ,184 L. Duarte ,201 D. Duchesneau ,51 K. Duffy ,156 K. Dugas,24 P. Dunne ,88 B. Dutta ,195 H. Duyang ,185 D. A. Dwyer,126 A. S. Dyshkant,149 S. Dytman ,168 M. Eads,149 A. Earle,191 S. Edayath,109 D. Edmunds ,139 J. Eisch ,66 P. Englezos,177 A. Ereditato ,37 T. Erjavec,23 C. O. Escobar,66 J. J. Evans ,135 E. Ewart ,91 A. C. Ezeribe ,183 K. Fahey,66 L. Fajt,35 A. Falcone,98,140 M. Fani’,143,129 C. Farnese ,101 S. Farrell,174 Y. Farzan ,111 D. Fedoseev ,†J. Felix ,77 Y. Feng ,109 E. Fernandez-Martinez ,133 G. Ferry,160 E. Fialova,50 L. Fields ,151 P. Filip ,49 A. Filkins ,192 F. Filthaut ,146,173 R. Fine ,129 G. Fiorillo ,100,145 M. Fiorini ,94,67 S. Fogarty,44 W. Foreman ,87 J. Fowler,55 J. Franc ,50 K. Francis ,149 D. Franco ,37 J. Franklin ,56 J. Freeman ,66 J. Fried,20 A. Friedland ,184 S. Fuess ,66 I. K. Furic,68 K. Furman,172 A. P. Furmanski ,143 R. Gaba,159 A. Gabrielli ,92,17 A. M. Gago,169 F. Galizzi,98 H. Gallagher,200 N. Gallice ,20 V. Galymov ,110 E. Gamberini ,35 T. Gamble,183 F. Ganacim,193 R. Gandhi ,78 S. Ganguly ,66 F. Gao ,27 S. Gao ,20 D. Garcia-Gamez ,73 M. Á. García-Peris,84 F. Gardim,62 S. Gardiner ,66 D. Gastler,18 A. Gauch,14 J. Gauvreau,153 P. Gauzzi ,181,104 S. Gazzana ,95 G. Ge,45 N. Geffroy,51 B. Gelli ,30 S. Gent,187 L. Gerlach,20 Z. Ghorbani-Moghaddam ,96 T. Giammaria,94,67 D. Gibin ,158,101 I. Gil-Botella ,39 S. Gilligan ,155 A. Gioiosa ,103 S. Giovannella ,95 C. Girerd,110 A. K. Giri,90 C. Giugliano ,94 V. Giusti ,103 D. Gnani,126 O. Gogota ,124 S. Gollapinni ,129 K. Gollwitzer,66 R. A. Gomes ,63 L. V. Gomez Bermeo,182 L. S. Gomez Fajardo,182 F. Gonnella ,16 D. Gonzalez-Diaz ,85 M. Gonzalez-Lopez ,133 M. C. Goodman ,8S. Goswami,166 C. Gotti ,98 J. Goudeau,130 E. Goudzovski ,16 C. Grace ,126 E. Gramellini ,135 R. Gran ,142 E. Granados,77 P. Granger ,161 C. Grant,18 D. R. Gratieri ,70,30 G. Grauso,100 P. Green ,156 S. Greenberg,126,22 J. Greer ,19 W. C. Griffith,191 F. T. Groetschla,35 FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE TOTAL INELASTIC CROSS …PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-15 K. Grzelak ,208 L. Gu,125 W. Gu ,20 V. Guarino,8M. Guarise ,94,67 R. Guenette ,135 M. Guerzoni ,92 D. Guffanti ,98,140 A. Guglielmi ,101 B. Guo ,185 F. Y. Guo ,189 A. Gupta,184 V. Gupta,146,3 G. Gurung,197 D. Gutierrez,170 P. Guzowski ,135 M. M. Guzzo ,30 S. Gwon,38 A. Habig ,142 H. Hadavand ,197 L. Haegel ,110 R. Haenni ,14 L. Hagaman ,214 A. Hahn,66 J. Haiston,186 J. Hakenmüller,55 T. Hamernik ,66 P. Hamilton ,88 J. Hancock ,16 F. Happacher ,95 D. A. Harris ,216,66 A. Hart ,172 J. Hartnell ,191 T. Hartnett,178 J. Harton ,44 T. Hasegawa ,121 C. M. Hasnip ,35 R. Hatcher ,66 K. Hayrapetyan,172 J. Hays ,172 E. Hazen,18 M. He,81 A. Heavey ,66 K. M. Heeger ,214 J. Heise ,190 P. Hellmuth,131 S. Henry,175 K. Herner ,66 V. Hewes ,40 A. Higuera Pichardo ,174 C. Hilgenberg ,143 S. J. Hillier ,16 A. Himmel ,66 E. Hinkle,37 L. R. Hirsch,193 J. Ho ,53 J. Hoff,66 A. Holin ,178 T. Holvey ,156 E. Hoppe ,157 S. Horiuchi ,207 G. A. Horton-Smith ,119 T. Houdy,160 B. Howard,216 R. Howell,175 I. Hristova ,178 M. S. Hronek,66 J. Huang,23 R. G. Huang,126 Z. Hulcher,184 M. Ibrahim,59 G. Iles ,88 N. Ilic ,199 A. M. Iliescu ,95 R. Illingworth ,66 G. Ingratta ,92,17 A. Ioannisian ,215 B. Irwin,143 L. Isenhower ,1M. Ismerio Oliveira,65 R. Itay ,184 C. M. Jackson ,157 V. Jain ,2 E. James,66 W. Jang,197 B. Jargowsky ,24 D. Jena ,66 I. Jentz,213 X. Ji ,20 C. Jiang,115 J. Jiang,189 L. Jiang ,207 A. Jipa,21 J. H. Jo,20 F. R. Joaquim,127,112 W. Johnson,186 C. Jollet ,131 B. Jones ,197 R. Jones ,183 N. Jovancevic,152 M. Judah ,168 C. K. Jung,189 T. Junk ,66 Y. Jwa ,184,45 M. Kabirnezhad ,88 A. C. Kaboth,176,178 I. Kadenko ,124 I. Kakorin ,† A. Kalitkina ,†D. Kalra,45 M. Kandemir,60 D. M. Kaplan ,87 G. Karagiorgi ,45 G. Karaman ,108 A. Karcher,126 Y. Karyotakis,51 S. Kasai,123 S. P. Kasetti,130 L. Kashur ,44 I. Katsioulas ,16 A. Kauther,149 N. Kazaryan ,215 L. Ke,20 E. Kearns ,18 P. T. Keener,164 K. J. Kelly ,195 E. Kemp ,30 O. Kemularia ,72 Y. Kermaidic,160 W. Ketchum,66 S. H. Kettell ,20 M. Khabibullin ,†N. Khan,88 A. Khvedelidze ,72 D. Kim ,195 J. Kim,175 M. J. Kim,66 B. King ,66 B. Kirby ,45 M. Kirby ,20 A. Kish ,66 J. Klein ,164 J. Kleykamp ,144 A. Klustova ,88 T. Kobilarcik ,66 L. Koch ,134 K. Koehler,213 L. W. Koerner ,81 D. H. Koh,184 L. Kolupaeva ,†D. Korablev ,†M. Kordosky ,212 T. Kosc ,76 U. Kose ,35 V. A. Kostelecký,91 K. Kothekar ,19 I. Kotler,54 M. Kovalcuk,49 V. Kozhukalov ,†W. Krah ,146 R. Kralik,191 M. Kramer ,126 L. Kreczko ,19 F. Krennrich,109 I. Kreslo ,14 T. Kroupova ,164 S. Kubota,135 M. Kubu,35 Y. Kudenko ,† V. A. Kudryavtsev ,183 G. Kufatty,69 S. Kuhlmann ,8S. Kulagin ,†J. Kumar,79 P. Kumar ,183 S. Kumaran ,24 J. Kunzmann ,14 R. Kuravi,126 N. Kurita ,184 C. Kuruppu ,185 V. Kus ,50 T. Kutter,130 J. Kvasnicka,49 T. Labree,149 T. Lackey,66 I. Lalău,21 A. Lambert,126 B. J. Land,164 C. E. Lane ,54 N. Lane,135 K. Lang ,198 T. Langford ,214 M. Langstaff,135 F. Lanni ,35 O. Lantwin ,51 J. Larkin,20 P. Lasorak ,88 D. Last,164 A. Laudrain ,134 A. Laundrie,213 G. Laurenti ,92 E. Lavaut,160 P. Laycock ,20 I. Lazanu ,21 R. LaZur ,44 M. Lazzaroni ,99,141 T. Le,200 S. Leardini,85 J. Learned ,79 T. LeCompte ,184 V. Legin,124 G. Lehmann Miotto,35 R. Lehnert,91 M. A. Leigui de Oliveira,64 M. Leitner ,126 D. Leon Silverio,186 L. M. Lepin,69 J.-Y Li,57 S. W. Li,24 Y. Li ,20 H. Liao ,119 C. S. Lin,126 D. Lindebaum,19 S. Linden,20 R. A. Lineros ,32 A. Lister ,213 B. R. Littlejohn ,87 H. Liu,20 J. Liu ,24 Y. Liu ,37 S. Lockwitz ,66 M. Lokajicek ,49 I. Lomidze,72 K. Long,88 T. V. Lopes,62 J. H. Lopez Botero ,6I. López de Rego,39 N. López-March,84 T. Lord ,209 J. M. LoSecco,151 W. C. Louis ,129 A. Lozano Sanchez,54 X.-G. Lu,209 K. B. Luk,80,126,22 B. Lunday,164 X. Luo ,27 E. Luppi ,94,67 D. MacFarlane ,184 A. A. Machado,30 P. Machado ,66 C. T. Macias,91 J. R. Macier,66 M. MacMahon,203 A. Maddalena ,75 A. Madera,35 P. Madigan ,22,126 S. Magill ,8C. Magueur,160 K. Mahn ,139 A. Maio ,127,61 A. Major ,55 K. Majumdar,128 S. Mameli,103 M. Man,199 R. C. Mandujano,24 J. Maneira,127,61 S. Manly ,175 A. Mann ,200 K. Manolopoulos,178 M. Manrique Plata,91 S. Manthey Corchado,39 V. N. Manyam ,20 M. Marchan,66 A. Marchionni ,66 W. Marciano ,20 D. Marfatia,79 C. Mariani ,207 J. Maricic ,79 F. Marinho ,113 A. D. Marino ,43 T. Markiewicz ,184 F. Das Chagas Marques,30 C. Marquet,131 M. Marshak ,143 C. M. Marshall,175 J. Marshall ,209 L. Martina ,97 J. Martín-Albo,84 N. Martinez,119 D. A. Martinez Caicedo,186 F. Martínez López,172 P. Martínez Mirav´e,84 S. Martynenko ,20 V. Mascagna ,98 C. Massari,98 A. Mastbaum ,177 F. Matichard,126 S. Matsuno,79 G. Matteucci ,100,145 J. Matthews ,130 C. Mauger ,164 N. Mauri ,92,17 K. Mavrokoridis ,128 I. Mawby ,125 R. Mazza,98 T. McAskill,210 N. McConkey,172,203 K. S. McFarland ,175 C. McGrew ,189 A. McNab ,135 L. Meazza ,98 V. C. N. Meddage,68 A. Mefodiev ,†B. Mehta ,159 P. Mehta ,116 P. Melas,11 O. Mena ,84 H. Mendez ,170 P. Mendez,35 D. P. M´endez,20 A. Menegolli ,102,163 G. Meng ,101 A. C. E. A. Mercuri,193 A. Meregaglia ,131 M. D. Messier,91 S. Metallo,143 W. Metcalf,130 M. Mewes ,91 H. Meyer ,211 T. Miao,66 J. Micallef,200,136 A. Miccoli ,97 G. Michna,187 R. Milincic,79 F. Miller ,213 G. Miller,135 W. Miller ,143 O. Mineev ,†A. Minotti ,98,140 L. Miralles Verge,35 O. G. Miranda ,41 C. Mironov ,161 S. Miryala ,20 S. Miscetti ,95 C. S. Mishra,66 P. Mishra,82 S. R. Mishra,185 A. Mislivec ,143 M. Mitchell,130 D. Mladenov,35 I. Mocioiu,165 A. Mogan ,66 N. Moggi ,92,17 R. Mohanta ,82 T. A. Mohayai ,91 N. Mokhov ,66 J. Molina,10 L. Molina Bueno,84 E. Montagna,92,17 A. Montanari ,92 A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-16 C. Montanari ,102,66,163 D. Montanari ,66 D. Montanino ,97,179 L. M. Montaño Zetina,41 M. Mooney ,44 A. F. Moor ,183 Z. Moore ,192 D. Moreno ,7O. Moreno-Palacios,212 L. Morescalchi ,103 D. Moretti,98 R. Moretti,98 C. Morris,81 C. Mossey ,66 C. A. Moura ,64 G. Mouster ,125 W. Mu ,66 L. Mualem ,28 J. Mueller ,44 M. Muether ,211 F. Muheim ,57 A. Muir ,52 M. Mulhearn ,23 D. Munford,81 L. J. Munteanu ,35 H. Muramatsu ,143 J. Muraz ,76 M. Murphy,207 T. Murphy,192 J. Muse ,143 A. Mytilinaki,178 J. Nachtman ,108 Y. Nagai ,59 S. Nagu ,132 R. Nandakumar ,178 D. Naples,168 S. Narita ,114 A. Navrer-Agasson ,88,135 N. Nayak ,20 M. Nebot-Guinot ,57 A. Nehm ,134 J. K. Nelson ,212 O. Neogi,108 J. Nesbit,213 M. Nessi ,66,35 D. Newbold ,178 M. Newcomer ,164 R. Nichol ,203 F. Nicolas-Arnaldos,73 A. Nikolica,164 J. Nikolov,152 E. Niner ,66 K. Nishimura ,79 A. Norman ,66 A. Norrick ,66 P. Novella ,84 A. Nowak,125 J. A. Nowak ,125 M. Oberling,8J. P. Ochoa-Ricoux,24 S. Oh ,55 S. B. Oh,66 A. Olivier ,151 A. Olshevskiy ,†T. Olson ,81 Y. Onel ,108 Y. Onishchuk ,124 A. Oranday,91 M. Osbiston,209 J. A. Osorio V´elez,6L. O’Sullivan,134 L. Otiniano Ormachea,46,106 J. Ott,24 L. Pagani ,23 G. Palacio ,58 O. Palamara ,66 S. Palestini ,35 J. M. Paley ,66 M. Pallavicini ,96,71 C. Palomares ,39 S. Pan,166 P. Panda,82 W. Panduro Vazquez,176 E. Pantic,23 V. Paolone ,168 R. Papaleo ,105 A. Papanestis ,178 D. Papoulias ,11 S. Paramesvaran ,19 A. Paris,170 S. Parke ,66 E. Parozzi,98,140 S. Parsa,14 Z. Parsa,20 S. Parveen,116 M. Parvu ,21 D. Pasciuto ,103 S. Pascoli ,92,17 L. Pasqualini ,92,17 J. Pasternak,88 C. Patrick ,57,203 L. Patrizii ,92 R. B. Patterson ,28 T. Patzak ,161 A. Paudel ,66 L. Paulucci ,64 Z. Pavlovic ,66 G. Pawloski ,143 D. Payne ,128 V. Pec ,49 E. Pedreschi ,103 S. J. M. Peeters,191 W. Pellico,66 A. Pena Perez,184 E. Pennacchio ,110 A. Penzo ,108 O. L. G. Peres,30 Y. F. Perez Gonzalez,56 L. P´erez-Molina,39 C. Pernas,212 J. Perry,57 D. Pershey ,69 G. Pessina ,98 G. Petrillo ,184 C. Petta ,93,31 R. Petti,185 M. Pfaff,88 V. Pia,92,17 L. Pickering ,178,176 F. Pietropaolo ,35,101 V. L. Pimentel ,47,30 G. Pinaroli,20 S. Pincha,89 J. Pinchault,51 K. Pitts ,207 K. Plows,156 C. Pollack,170 T. Pollman,146,3 F. Pompa ,84 X. Pons,35 N. Poonthottathil ,86,109 V. Popov,194 F. Poppi,92,17 J. Porter,191 L. G. Porto Paixão,30 M. Potekhin,20 R. Potenza,93,31 J. Pozimski,88 M. Pozzato ,92,17 T. Prakash,126 C. Pratt,23 M. Prest ,98 F. Psihas ,66 D. Pugnere ,110 X. Qian ,20 J. Queen,55 J. L. Raaf,66 V. Radeka,20 J. Rademacker ,19 B. Radics ,216 F. Raffaelli ,103 A. Rafique ,8E. Raguzin ,20 M. Rai,209 S. Rajagopalan ,20 M. Rajaoalisoa ,40 I. Rakhno,66 L. Rakotondravohitra ,5L. Ralte ,90 M. A. Ramirez Delgado,164 B. Ramson ,66 A. Rappoldi ,102,163 G. Raselli ,102,163 P. Ratoff ,125 R. Ray,66 H. Razafinime ,40 E. M. Rea,143 J. S. Real ,76 B. Rebel ,213,66 R. Rechenmacher,66 J. Reichenbacher ,186 S. D. Reitzner,66 H. Rejeb Sfar,35 E. Renner ,129 A. Renshaw ,81 S. Rescia,20 F. Resnati,35 Diego Restrepo,6C. Reynolds,172 M. Ribas,193 S. Riboldi ,99 C. Riccio ,189 G. Riccobene,105 J. S. Ricol,76 M. Rigan ,191 E. V. Rincón,58 A. Ritchie-Yates,176 S. Ritter,134 D. Rivera ,129 R. Rivera ,66 A. Robert,76 J. L. Rocabado Rocha,84 L. Rochester ,184 M. Roda ,128 P. Rodrigues ,156 M. J. Rodriguez Alonso,35 J. Rodriguez Rondon,186 S. Rosauro-Alcaraz ,160 P. Rosier,160 D. Ross,139 M. Rossella ,102,163 M. Rossi ,35 M. Ross-Lonergan ,129 N. Roy ,216 P. Roy ,211 C. Rubbia,74 A. Ruggeri,92 G. Ruiz Ferreira,135 B. Russell ,136 D. Ruterbories ,175 A. Rybnikov ,†S. Sacerdoti ,161 S. Saha,168 S. K. Sahoo ,90 N. Sahu ,90 P. Sala ,66 N. Samios,20 O. Samoylov ,†M. C. Sanchez,69 A. Sánchez Bravo,84 A. Sánchez-Castillo,73 P. Sánchez-Lucas,73 V. Sandberg,129 D. A. Sanders ,144 S. Sanfilippo ,105 D. Sankey ,178 D. Santoro,99,162 N. Saoulidou ,11 P. Sapienza ,105 C. Sarasty ,40 I. Sarcevic,9I. Sarra ,95 G. Savage,66 V. Savinov ,168 G. Scanavini ,214 A. Scaramelli,102 A. Scarff ,183 T. Schefke,130 H. Schellman ,155,66 S. Schifano ,94,67 P. Schlabach,66 D. Schmitz ,37 A. W. Schneider ,136 K. Scholberg ,55 A. Schukraft ,66 B. Schuld ,43 A. Segade,206 E. Segreto ,30 A. Selyunin ,†D. Senadheera,168 C. R. Senise Jr.,201 J. Sensenig ,164 M. H. Shaevitz,45 P. Shanahan ,66 P. Sharma,159 R. Kumar,171 S. Sharma Poudel,186 K. Shaw ,191 T. Shaw ,66 K. Shchablo,110 J. Shen,164 C. Shepherd-Themistocleous ,178 A. Sheshukov ,†J. Shi,29 W. Shi ,189 S. Shin ,117 S. Shivakoti,211 I. Shoemaker ,207 D. Shooltz,139 R. Shrock ,189 B. Siddi ,94 M. Siden,44 J. Silber ,126 L. Simard ,160 J. Sinclair ,184 G. Sinev,186 Jaydip Singh,23 J. Singh ,132 L. Singh,48 P. Singh ,172 V. Singh ,48 S. Singh Chauhan,159 R. Sipos ,35 C. Sironneau,161 G. Sirri ,92 K. Siyeon ,38 K. Skarpaas,184 J. Smedley,175 E. Smith ,91 J. Smith ,189 P. Smith,91 J. Smolik,50,49 M. Smy,24 M. Snape,209 E. L. Snider,66 P. Snopok ,87 D. Snowden-Ifft,153 M. Soares Nunes,66 H. Sobel ,24 M. Soderberg ,192 S. Sokolov ,†C. J. Solano Salinas,204,106 S. Söldner-Rembold,88,135 N. Solomey ,211 V. Solovov ,127 W. E. Sondheim,129 M. Sorel ,84 A. Sotnikov ,†J. Soto-Oton ,84 A. Sousa ,40 K. Soustruznik,36 F. Spinella ,103 J. Spitz ,138 N. J. C. Spooner,183 K. Spurgeon ,192 D. Stalder ,10 M. Stancari,66 L. Stanco ,158,101 J. Steenis,23 R. Stein ,19 H. M. Steiner,126 A. F. Steklain Lisbôa,193 A. Stepanova ,†J. Stewart,20 B. Stillwell ,37 J. Stock ,186 F. Stocker ,35 T. Stokes ,130 M. Strait ,143 T. Strauss ,66 L. Strigari ,195 A. Stuart ,42 J. G. Suarez,58 J. Subash,16 A. Surdo ,97 L. Suter ,66 C. M. Sutera,93,31 K. Sutton ,28 Y. Suvorov,100,145 R. Svoboda ,23 FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE TOTAL INELASTIC CROSS …PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-17 S. K. Swain,147 B. Szczerbinska,196 A. M. Szelc ,57 A. Sztuc ,203 A. Taffara,103 N. Talukdar ,185 J. Tamara,7 H. A. Tanaka,184 S. Tang ,20 N. Taniuchi,29 A. M. Tapia Casanova,137 B. Tapia Oregui,198 A. Tapper ,88 S. Tariq ,66 E. Tarpara,20 E. Tatar,83 R. Tayloe ,91 D. Tedeschi,185 A. M. Teklu,189 J. Tena Vidal,194 P. Tennessen,126,4 M. Tenti ,92 K. Terao ,184 F. Terranova ,98,140 G. Testera ,96 T. Thakore ,40 A. Thea ,178 S. Thomas,192 A. Thompson ,195 C. Thorn,20 S. C. Timm,66 E. Tiras ,60,108 V. Tishchenko ,20 N. Todorović,152 L. Tomassetti ,94,67 A. Tonazzo ,161 D. Torbunov ,20 M. Torti,98,140 M. Tortola ,84 F. Tortorici ,93,31 N. Tosi ,92 D. Totani,27 M. Toups ,66 C. Touramanis ,128 D. Tran,81 R. Travaglini ,92 J. Trevor,28 E. Triller,139 S. Trilov ,19 J. Truchon,213 D. Truncali,181,104 W. H. Trzaska ,118 Y. Tsai ,24 Y.-T. Tsai,184 Z. Tsamalaidze ,72 K. V. Tsang,184 N. Tsverava ,72 S. Z. Tu,115 S. Tufanli,35 C. Tunnell ,174 S. Turnberg,87 J. Turner ,56 M. Tuzi,84 J. Tyler,119 E. Tyley ,183 M. Tzanov,130 M. A. Uchida ,29 J. Ureña González,84 J. Urheim ,91 T. Usher ,184 H. Utaegbulam ,175 S. Uzunyan,149 M. R. Vagins ,120,24 P. Vahle ,212 S. Valder ,191 G. A. Valdiviesso,62 E. Valencia ,77 R. Valentim ,201 Z. Vallari ,28 E. Vallazza ,98 J. W. F. Valle,84 R. Van Berg ,164 R. G. Van de Water ,129 D. V. Forero,137 A. Vannozzi,95 M. Van Nuland-Troost,146 F. Varanini ,101 D. Vargas Oliva,199 S. Vasina ,†N. Vaughan ,155 K. Vaziri,66 A. Vázquez-Ramos,73 J. Vega ,46 S. Ventura ,101 A. Verdugo ,39 S. Vergani ,203 M. Verzocchi ,66 K. Vetter,66 M. Vicenzi ,20 H. Vieira de Souza,161 C. Vignoli ,75 C. Vilela ,127 E. Villa ,35 S. Viola ,105 B. Viren,20 A. P. Vizcaya Hernandez,44 Q. Vuong,175 A. V. Waldron ,172 M. Wallbank ,40 J. Walsh,139 T. Walton,66 H. Wang,25 J. Wang,186 L. Wang,126 M. H. L. S. Wang,66 X. Wang,66 Y. Wang ,25 K. Warburton ,109 D. Warner,44 L. Warsame ,88 M. O. Wascko,156,178 D. Waters ,203 A. Watson ,16 K. Wawrowska,178,191 A. Weber ,134,66 C. M. Weber,143 M. Weber ,14 H. Wei ,130 A. Weinstein ,109 S. Westerdale ,26 M. Wetstein,109 K. Whalen ,178 A. White ,197 A. White,214 L. H. Whitehead ,29 D. Whittington ,192 J. Wilhlemi,214 M. J. Wilking ,143 A. Wilkinson,203 C. Wilkinson ,126 F. Wilson ,178 R. J. Wilson ,44 P. Winter ,8W. Wisniewski ,184 J. Wolcott ,200 J. Wolfs ,175 T. Wongjirad,200 A. Wood,81 K. Wood,126 E. Worcester ,20 M. Worcester ,20 M. Wospakrik ,66 K. Wresilo,29 C. Wret ,175 S. Wu ,143 W. Wu ,66 W. Wu ,24 M. Wurm ,134 J. Wyenberg,53 Y. Xiao,24 I. Xiotidis,88 B. Yaeggy ,40 N. Yahlali,84 E. Yandel ,27 J. Yang,80 K. Yang ,156 T. Yang ,66 A. Yankelevich ,24 N. Yershov ,†K. Yonehara ,66 T. Young ,148 B. Yu ,20 H. Yu ,20 J. Yu ,197 Y. Yu ,87 W. Yuan ,57 R. Zaki,216 J. Zalesak ,49 L. Zambelli ,51 B. Zamorano ,73 A. Zani ,99 O. Zapata,6L. Zazueta ,192 G. P. Zeller,66 J. Zennamo,66 K. Zeug ,213 C. Zhang ,20 S. Zhang ,91 M. Zhao ,20 E. Zhivun,20 E. D. Zimmerman ,43 S. Zucchelli ,92,17 J. Zuklin ,49 V. Zutshi,149 and R. Zwaska 66 (DUNE Collaboration) 1Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas 79601, USA 2University of Albany, SUNY, Albany, New York 12222, USA 3University of Amsterdam, NL-1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands 4Antalya Bilim University, 07190 Döşemealtı/Antalya, Turkey 5University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar 6University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia 7Universidad Antonio Nariño, Bogotá, Colombia 8Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA 9University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA 10Universidad Nacional de Asunción, San Lorenzo, Paraguay 11University of Athens, Zografou GR 157 84, Greece 12Universidad del Atlántico, Puerto Colombia, Atlántico, Colombia 13Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57197, USA 14University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland 15Beykent University, Istanbul, Turkey 16University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom 17Universit`a di Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy 18Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA 19University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom 20Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA 21University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania 22University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA 23University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-18 24University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA 25University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA 26University of California Riverside, Riverside California 92521, USA 27University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA 28California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA 29University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom 30Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas-SP, 13083-970, Brazil 31Universit`a di Catania, 2-95131 Catania, Italy 32Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile 33Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22290-180, Brazil 34IRFU, CEA, Universit´e Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France 35CERN, The European Organization for Nuclear Research, 1211 Meyrin, Switzerland 36Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University, 180 00 Prague 8, Czech Republic 37University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA 38Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, South Korea 39CIEMAT, Centro de Investigaciones Energ´eticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, E-28040 Madrid, Spain 40University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA 41Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Polit´ecnico Nacional (Cinvestav), Mexico City, Mexico 42Universidad de Colima, Colima, Mexico 43University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA 44Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA 45Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA 46Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial, Lima, Peru 47Centro de Tecnologia da Informacao Renato Archer, Amarais-Campinas, SP-CEP 13069-901 48Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, 824236, India 49Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, 182 00 Prague 8, Czech Republic 50Czech Technical University, 115 19 Prague 1, Czech Republic 51Laboratoire d’Annecy de Physique des Particules, Universit´e Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LAPP-IN2P3, 74000 Annecy, France 52Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire WA4 4AD, United Kingdom 53Dordt University, Sioux Center, Iowa 51250, USA 54Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA 55Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA 56Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom 57University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, United Kingdom 58Universidad EIA, Envigado, Antioquia, Colombia 59Eötvös Loránd University, 1053 Budapest, Hungary 60Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey 61Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa-FCUL, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal 62Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Poços de Caldas-MG, 37715-400, Brazil 63Universidade Federal de Goias, Goiania, GO 74690-900, Brazil 64Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo Andr´e-SP, 09210-580, Brazil 65Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 21941-901, Brazil 66Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA 67University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy 68University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-8440, USA 69Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306 USA 70Fluminense Federal University, 9 Icaraí Niterói-RJ, 24220-900, Brazil 71Universit`a degli Studi di Genova, Genova, Italy 72Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi, Georgia 73University of Granada & CAFPE, 18002 Granada, Spain 74Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy 75Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, L’Aquila AQ, Italy 76University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LPSC-IN2P3, 38000 Grenoble, France 77Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, C.P. 37000, Mexico 78Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Jhunsi, Allahabad 211 019, India 79University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE TOTAL INELASTIC CROSS …PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-19 80Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China 81University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA 82University of Hyderabad, Gachibowli, Hyderabad-500 046, India 83Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho 83209, USA 84Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC and Universitat de Val`encia, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain 85Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxías, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Spain 86Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India 87Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA 88Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom 89Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781 039, India 90Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Hyderabad 502285, India 91Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA 92Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Bologna, 40127 Bologna BO, Italy 93Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Catania, I-95123 Catania, Italy 94Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Ferrara, I-44122 Ferrara, Italy 95Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Roma, Italy 96Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Genova, 16146 Genova GE, Italy 97Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Lecce, 73100-Lecce, Italy 98Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Milano Bicocca, 3-I-20126 Milano, Italy 99Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy 100Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Napoli, I-80126 Napoli, Italy 101Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy 102Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Pavia, I-27100 Pavia, Italy 103Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Laboratori Nazionali di Pisa, Pisa PI, Italy 104Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sezione di Roma, 00185 Roma RM, Italy 105Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, 95123 Catania, Italy 106Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Lima 25, Perú 107University of Insubria, Via Ravasi, 2, 21100 Varese VA, Italy 108University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA 109Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA 110Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon, 69622 Villeurbanne, France 111Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, Tehran, Iran 112Instituto Superior T´ecnico-IST, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal 113Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil 114Iwate University, Morioka, Iwate 020-8551, Japan 115Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi 39217, USA 116Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India 117Jeonbuk National University, Jeonrabuk-do 54896, South Korea 118Jyväskylä University, FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland 119Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA 120Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan 121High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Ibaraki, 305-0801, Japan 122Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Daejeon, 34141, South Korea 123National Institute of Technology, Kure College, Hiroshima, 737-8506, Japan 124Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 01601 Kyiv, Ukraine 125Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YB, United Kingdom 126Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA 127Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, 1649-003 Lisboa and 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal 128University of Liverpool, L69 7ZE, Liverpool, United Kingdom 129Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA 130Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA 131Laboratoire de Physique des Deux Infinis Bordeaux-IN2P3, F-33175 Gradignan, Bordeaux, France 132University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226007, India 133Madrid Autonoma University and IFT UAM/CSIC, 28049 Madrid, Spain 134Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55122 Mainz, Germany 135University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-20 136Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA 137University of Medellín, Medellín, 050026 Colombia 138University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA 139Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA 140Universit`a di Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy 141Universit`a degli Studi di Milano, I-20133 Milano, Italy 142University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA 143University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA 144University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677 USA 145Universit`a degli Studi di Napoli Federico II , 80138 Napoli NA, Italy 146Nikhef National Institute of Subatomic Physics, 1098 XG Amsterdam, Netherlands 147National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Odisha 752050, India 148University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202-8357, USA 149Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA 150Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA 151University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA 152University of Novi Sad, 21102 Novi Sad, Serbia 153Occidental College, Los Angeles, California 90041 154Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA 155Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA 156University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RH, United Kingdom 157Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA 158Universt`a degli Studi di Padova, I-35131 Padova, Italy 159Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India 160Universit´e Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, 91405 Orsay, France 161Universit´e Paris Cit´e, CNRS, Astroparticule et Cosmologie, Paris, France 162University of Parma, 43121 Parma PR, Italy 163Universit`a degli Studi di Pavia, 27100 Pavia PV, Italy 164University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA 165Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA 166Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380 009, India 167Universit`a di Pisa, I-56127 Pisa, Italy 168University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA 169Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú 170University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez 00681, Puerto Rico, USA 171Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, India 172Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom 173Radboud University, NL-6525 AJ Nijmegen, Netherlands 174Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005 175University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA 176Royal Holloway College London, London, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom 177Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854, USA 178STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom 179Universit`a del Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy 180Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta, Colombia 181Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma RM, Italy 182Universidad Sergio Arboleda, 11022 Bogotá, Colombia 183University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom 184SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA 185University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA 186South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701, USA 187South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota 57007, USA 188Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA 189Stony Brook University, SUNY, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA 190Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota 57754, USA 191University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RH, United Kingdom 192Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA 193Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil FIRST MEASUREMENT OF THE TOTAL INELASTIC CROSS …PHYS. 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D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-21 194Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel 195Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77840 196Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas 78412, USA 197University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019, USA 198University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA 199University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada 200Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA 201Universidade Federal de São Paulo, 09913-030, São Paulo, Brazil 202Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 689-798, South Korea 203University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom 204Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru 205Valley City State University, Valley City, North Dakota 58072, USA 206University of Vigo, E- 36310 Vigo, Spain 207Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA 208University of Warsaw, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland 209University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom 210Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02481, USA 211Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 67260, USA 212William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA 213University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA 214Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA 215Yerevan Institute for Theoretical Physics and Modeling, Yerevan 0036, Armenia 216York University, Toronto M3J 1P3, Canada †Affiliated with an Institute or an International Laboratory Participating within the DUNE Collaboration. A. ABED ABUD et al. PHYS. REV. D 110, 092011 (2024) 092011-22