Measurement of the quasielastic axial vector mass in neutrino interactions on oxygen (original) (raw)

Quasi-elastic neutrino charged-current scattering cross sections on oxygen

Physical Review C, 2007

The charged-current quasi-elastic scattering of muon neutrinos on oxygen target is computed for neutrino energies between 200 MeV and 2.5 GeV using the relativistic distortedwave impulse approximation with relativistic optical potential, which was earlier successfully applied to describe electron-nucleus data. We study both neutrino and electron processes and show that the reduced exclusive cross sections for neutrino and electron scattering are similar. The comparison with the relativistic Fermi gas model (RFGM), which is widely used in data analyses of neutrino experiments, shows that the RFGM fails completely when applied to exclusive cross section data and leads to overestimated values of inclusive and total cross sections. We also found significant nuclear-model dependence of exclusive, inclusive and total cross sections for about 1 GeV energy. PACS numbers: 25.30.-c 25.30.Bf, 25.30.Pt, 13.15.+g I. INTRODUCTION The field of neutrino oscillations has been rapidly developing from the observation of anomalies in cosmic rays [1] and solar [2] neutrino data to the cross checks of these anomalies [3, 4] and most recently to terrestrial confirmations of neutrino oscillation hypothesis (Kamland, K2K [5] and MINOS [6]). The next steps in this field would be the precision measurements of observed mass splitting and mixing angles and detailed experimental study of the neutrino mixing matrix.

Nuclear Effects in Neutrino Interactions and Their Impact on the Determination of Oscillation Parameters

Advances in High Energy Physics, 2013

The quantitative description of the effects of nuclear dynamics on the measured neutrino-nucleus cross sections -needed to reduce the systematic uncertainty of long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments -involves severe difficulties. Owing to the uncertainty on the incoming neutrino energy, different reaction mechanisms contribute to the cross section measured at fixed energy and scattering angle of the outgoing lepton, and must therefore be consistently taken into account within a unified model. We review the theoretical approach based on the impulse approximation and the use of realistic nucleon spectral functions, allowing one to describe a variety of reaction mechanisms active in the broad kinematical range covered by neutrino experiments. The extension of this scheme to include more complex mechanisms involving the two-nucleon current, which are believed to be important, is also outlined. The impact of nuclear effects on the determination of neutrino oscillation parameters is illustrated by analyzing the problem of neutrino energy reconstruction.

Neutrino oscillation studies and the neutrino cross section

Nuclear Physics B-proceedings Supplements, 2002

The present uncertainties in the knowledge of the neutrino cross sections for Eν ∼ 1 GeV, that is in the energy range most important for atmospheric and long baseline accelerator neutrinos, are large. These uncertainties do not play a significant role in the interpretation of existing data, however they could become a limiting factor in future studies that aim at a complete and accurate determination of the neutrino oscillation parameters. New data and theoretical understanding on nuclear effects and on the electromagnetic structure functions at low Q 2 and in the resonance production region are available, and can be valuable in reducing the present systematic uncertainties. The collaboration of physicists working in different subfields will be important to obtain the most from this available information. It is now also possible, with the facilities developed for long baseline beams, to produce high intensity and well controlled ν-beams to measure the neutrino interaction properties with much better precision that what was done in the past. Several projects and ideas to fully exploit these possibilities are under active investigation. These topics have been the object of the first ν-interaction (NUINT01) workshop.

Effects of the nuclear correlations on the neutrino-oxygen interactions

The European Physical Journal A - Hadrons and Nuclei, 1999

We perform a calculation of the absolute charged current neutrino-oxygen events rates relevant in the atmospheric neutrino experiments. The inclusive reaction crosssection is split into exclusive channels, which are classified according to the number of Cerenkov rings they produce. The model includes the effects of residual interaction in a RPA scheme with both nucleon-hole and Delta-hole excited states and the effects of (npnh) excitations (n=2,3 ). Our result is that although the flavor ratio µ/e remains almost unaffected by the nuclear effects considered here and often neglected in the Monte-Carlo simulations, the absolute events rates are subject to important modifications.

Neutrino-nucleus interactions: from nuclear dynamics to neutrino oscillations

EPJ Web of Conferences, 2014

We present a theory of neutrino interactions with nuclei aimed at the description of several partial cross sections, namely quasielastic and multinucleon emission, coherent and incoherent single-pion production. We put a special emphasis on the multinucleon emission channel which is related to the two particle-two hole excitations. As we suggested, this channel can account in particular for the unexpected behavior of the quasielastic cross section measured by MiniBooNE. The impact of the multinucleon emission channel on the neutrino energy reconstruction procedure hence on the determination on the neutrino oscillation parameters, is also analyzed in connection with the recent T2K and MiniBooNE results.

Quasielastic neutrino scattering from oxygen and the atmospheric neutrino problem

Physical Review D, 1993

We examine several phenomena beyond the scope of Fermi-gas models that affect the quasielastic scattering (from oxygen) of neutrinos in the 0.1-3.0 GeV range. These include Coulomb interactions of outgoing protons and leptons, a realistic finitevolume mean field, and the residual nucleon-nucleon interaction. None of these effects are accurately represented in the Monte Carlo simulations used to predict event rates due to µ and e neutrinos from cosmic-ray collisions in the atmosphere. We nevertheless conclude that the neglected physics cannot account for the anomalous µ to e ratio observed at Kamiokande and IMB, and is unlikely to change absolute event rates by more than 10-15%. We briefly mention other phenomena, still to be investigated in detail, that may produce larger changes.

Neutrino interactions in oscillation experiments

Physical Review D, 2002

We calculate neutrino induced cross-sections relevant for oscillation experiments, including the τ-lepton threshold for quasi-elastic, resonance and deep inelastic scattering. In addition to threshold effects, we include nuclear corrections for heavy targets which are moderate for quasi-elastic and large for single pion production. Nuclear effects for deep inelastic reactions are small. We present cross sections together with their nuclear corrections for various channels which are useful for interpreting the experimental results and for determining parameters of the neutrino sector.

Unraveling the flux-averaged neutrino–nucleus cross section

The European Physical Journal Special Topics

The interpretation of the nuclear cross sections measured using accelerator neutrino beams involve severe difficulties, arising primarily from the average over the incoming neutrino flux. The broad energy distribution of the beam particles hampers the determination of the energy transfer to the nuclear target, the knowledge of which is needed to pin down the dominant reaction mechanism. Overcoming this problem requires the development of a theoretical approach suitable to describe neutrino interactions at energies ranging from hundreds of MeV to few GeV. In this paper, it is argued that the approach based on the factorisation of the nuclear cross section provides a consistent framework for the calculation of neutrino-nucleus interactions in both the quasi elastic and inelastic channels. The near-degeneracy between theoretical models based on different assumptions, and the use of electron scattering data to advance the understanding of neutrino-nucleus cross sections are also discussed.

Estimate of the theoretical uncertainty of the cross sections for nucleon knockout in neutral-current neutrino-oxygen interactions

Physical Review C, 2015

Free nucleons propagating in water are known to produce γ rays, which form a background to the searches for diffuse supernova neutrinos and sterile neutrinos carried out with Cherenkov detectors. As a consequence, the process of nucleon knockout induced by neutral-current quasielastic interactions of atmospheric (anti)neutrinos with oxygen needs to be under control at the quantitative level in the background simulations of the ongoing and future experiments. In this paper, we provide a quantitative assessment of the uncertainty associated with the theoretical description of the nuclear cross sections, estimating it from the discrepancies between the predictions of different models.

Impact of nuclear effects in the determination of neutrino oscillation parameters

2011

Main motivation of this work comparing Fermi gas (FG) and advanced nuclear model predictions for physically interesting neutrino observables this is relevant because many MonteCarlo codes, used to study the sensitivity to still unknown parameters at future ν facilities are based on FG impossible to discuss all recent nuclear models focus the attention on three different approaches Davide Meloni (RomaTre) Impact of nuclear effects in the determination of neutrino oscillation parameters NUINT 2011 2 / 28