An Analysis of Multiple Muon Scattering in NOνA Data and Simulation 

The NuMI Oscillation ν_e Appearance Experiment (NOνA) is a long-baseline neutrino beam experiment based in Fermilab. Event reconstruction, by which the hits in the detectors are used to determine individual tracks and estimated kinematic information, makes particle identification and analysis in this and similar experiments possible. This research focused on accessing the accuracy of the model used to simulate multiple muon scattering, as well as determining the effectiveness of the reconstruction fitting algorithm used to track muon scattering. Data and simulation were compared using an expected RMS scattering angle derived from roughly common attributes of the real and simulated models. By comparing actual angles to expected RMS angles, we determined that there is good agreement between the data and the simulation. However, we have discovered the presence of errors and discrepancies within the tracking algorithm itself. These results have provided additional validation for the use of simulation in testing, as well as laid the foundation for further study into the improvement of algorithmic tracking of scattering particles.