Dimuon production by high energy neutrinos and antineutrinos in the Fermilab fifteen-foot bubble chamber

The Fermilab fifteen-foot bubble chamber/two-plane External Muon Identifier (EMI) hybrid detector filled with Ne(47% atomic)-H2 is exposed to the quadrupole triplet beam (< E/sub ν//sub μ/ > = 89 GeV, < E/sub anti ν//sub μ/ > = 60 GeV). In 326,000 pictures there are 10,148 neutrino and 1773 antineutrino charged current events with two-plane EMI muon identification and muon momenta > 4 GeV/c. In this sample there are 55 μ-μ+X, 11 μ-μ-X and 0 μ+μ+X candidates with muon momenta > 4 GeV/c. The like-sign events are consistent with background. The opposite-sign dimuons occur at R/sub μ μ/ = 0.35 +- 0.10% of the single muon rate. The ν/sub μ/-induced μ-μ+ rate is 0.20 +- 0.15% below E/sub nu//sub μ/ = 100 GeV and 0.50 +- 0.30% above 100 GeV. In the opposite-sign dimuons there are 10 candidates with an associated V0 implying 0.76 +- 0.36 neutral strange particle per opposite-sign dimuon event. The production rate, excess of neutral strange particles, and kinematic distributions of the dimuon events are consistent with the charm model predictions. 56 references