Neutrino production of same-sign dimuons at the Fermilab Tevatron

The rate of neutrino- and antineutrino-induced prompt same-sign dimuon production in steel was measured using a sample of 220 μ-μ- events and 15 μ+μ+ events with Pμ>9 GeV/c, produced in 1.5 million νμ and 0.3 million anti νμ induced charged-current events with energies between 30 GeV and 600 GeV. The data were obtained with the Chicago-Columbia-Fermilab-Rochester (CCFR) neutrino detector in the Fermilab Tevatron Quadrupole Triplet Neutrino Beam during experiments E 744 and E 770. After background substraction, the prompt rate of same-sign dimuon production is (0.53±0.24)x10-4 per νμ charged-current event and (0.52±0.33)x10-4 per anti νμ charged-current event. The kinematic distributions of the same-sign dimuon events after background subtraction are consistent with those of the non-prompt background due to meson decays in the hadron shower of a charged-current event. Calculations of canti c gluon bremsstrahlung, based on improved measurements of the charm mass parameter and nucleon structure functions by the CCFR collaboration, yield a prompt rate of (0.09±0.39)x10-4 per νμ charged-current event. In this case, canti c gluon bremsstrahlung is probably not an observable source of prompt same-sign dimuons. (orig.)