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.

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Single neutral pion production by charged-current $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ interactions on hydrocarbon at $\langle E_\nu \rangle = $ 3.6 GeV

The MINERvA collaboration Le, T. ; Palomino, J.L. ; Aliaga, L. ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 749 (2015) 130-136, 2015.
Inspire Record 1351216 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.73317

Single neutral pion production via muon antineutrino charged-current interactions in plastic scintillator (CH) is studied using the \minerva detector exposed to the NuMI low-energy, wideband antineutrino beam at Fermilab. Measurement of this process constrains models of neutral pion production in nuclei, which is important because the neutral-current analog is a background for $\bar{\nu}_e$ appearance oscillation experiments. The differential cross sections for $\pi^0$ momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed $\pi^0$ and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the $\pi^0$ kinematics for this process.

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