Identification of nuclear effects in neutrino-carbon interactions at low three-momentum transfer

The MINERvA collaboration Rodrigues, P.A. ; Demgen, J. ; Miltenberger, E. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 116 (2016) 071802, 2016.
Inspire Record 1405301 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.76976

Two different nuclear-medium effects are isolated using a low three-momentum transfer subsample of neutrino-carbon scattering data from the MINERvA neutrino experiment. The observed hadronic energy in charged-current $\nu_\mu$ interactions is combined with muon kinematics to permit separation of the quasielastic and $\Delta$(1232) resonance processes. First, we observe a small cross section at very low energy transfer that matches the expected screening effect of long-range nucleon correlations. Second, additions to the event rate in the kinematic region between the quasielastic and $\Delta$ resonance processes are needed to describe the data. The data in this kinematic region also has an enhanced population of multi-proton final states. Contributions predicted for scattering from a nucleon pair have both properties; the model tested in this analysis is a significant improvement but does not fully describe the data. We present the results as a double-differential cross section to enable further investigation of nuclear models. Improved description of the effects of the nuclear environment are required by current and future neutrino oscillation experiments.

2 data tables

The $\nu_\mu$ flux, in units 10$^{-5}$ / m$^{2}$ / P.O.T. / GeV.

Measured cross section per nucleon, in units 10$^{-42}$ cm$^2$ / GeV$^2$.