Dilepton Production by Neutrinos in Neon

In an exposure of the Fermilab 15-ft bubble chamber filled with a heavy neon-hydrogen mixture to a broadband neutrino beam, we have observed 81 dilepton events of the type ${\nu }_{\mu }+\mathrm{Ne}\to {\mu }^{-}+e^{+}+\dots$. This corresponds to (0.5±0.15)% of the total charged-current neutrino interactions. A total of fifteen neutral strange-particle decays (${K_s}^0\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}, {\Lambda }^0\to p{\pi }^{-}$) were found in these dilepton events. When corrected for detection efficiencies and unobservable strange particles, this is consistent with the production of approximately one strange particle per event.