Study of neutrino interactions in hydrogen and deuterium: Description of the experiment and study of the reactionν+d→μ−+p+ps

This paper gives a detailed description of an experiment which studies the interactions of muon-type neutrinos in hydrogen and deuterium. The experiment was performed at the Zero Gradient Synchrotron using the wide-band neutrino beam incident on the Argonne 12-foot bubble chamber filled with hydrogen and deuterium. The neutrino energy spectrum peaks at 0.5 GeV and has a tail extending to 6 GeV. The shape and intensity of the flux is determined using measurements of pion yields from beryllium. The produced pions are focused by one or (for the latter part of the experiment) two magnetic horns. A total of 364000 pictures were taken with a hydrogen filling of the bubble chamber and 903 000 with a deuterium filling. The scanning and other analyses of the events are described. The most abundant reaction occurs off neutrons and is quasi-elastic scattering $\nu d\to {\mu }^{-}p{p}_s$. The separation of these events from background channels is discussed. The total and differential cross sections are analyzed to obtain the axial-vector form factor of the nucleon. Our result, expressed in terms of a dipole form factor, gives an axial-vector mass of 0.95±0.09 GeV. A comparison is made to previous measurements using neutrino beams, and also to determinations based upon threshold pion electroproduction experiments. In addition, the data are used to measure the weak vector form factor and so check the conserved-vector-current hypothesis.